Evening star., 1901-08-31
SEPTEM BER SKIES
Stars Of First Magnitude Above the
Horizon.
STUDYING The CONSULTATIONS
Interesting Facts About the GIo-
rous Harvest Moon.
PLANETS OF THE MONTH
PLANETS OF THE MONTH

Written for The Evening Star.
Only five stars Of the first magnitude will
be above the horizon at o'clock tomorrow
evening. They are Arcturus just about
setting between west and northwest; Vega,
nearly overhead; Antares, low in the south
west; Fomalhaut. at about the same alti-
tude in the southeast, and Affair. just
crossing the meridian at three-flfthS of the
distance from horizon to zenith. The very
brilliant white star seen between south and
southwest is the planet Jupiter. Five or
six degrees further east and at a greater
altitude is Saturn.
Facing the north at the hour named we
may see at low altitude on our left the
the well-known Great Dipper-the Plough
of modern English star gazers, the Karl's
Wagen of the Germans-and on our right,
at correspondingly high altitude, the w
shaped figure of Cassiopeia, known also as
the Chair" or the Lady in the Chair"
Beneath Cassiopeia stands Perseus. The
body of this old hero of astronomical my
thology is represented by an elongated
group of a dozen or more stars, of which
the brighter one form Y-Shaped figure,
the central star. Alpha Persei. being of the
second magnitude. At the right of this
star and at somewhat lower altitude is
the famous variable star Algol, the DE
mon" (Beta PerseD. in the Medusa Head
supposed to be carried by Perseus in his
left hand.
Alpha Persei is the first and lowermost
of line of five stars of the same magni-
tude and about equally distant from one
another which curves upward to the right
and terminates In large. quadrilaterai
completed by the addition of two other Sec
ond-magnitude stars still farther to the
right. The middle three of the five stars
noted belong to Andromeda; the uppermost.
Alpha, being in her head; the lowermost,
Gamma, In her left foot. The quadrilateral
which now stands in midheavens in the
east is known as the Square of Pegasus.
although but three of it's stars belong to
the old constellation OF the Winged Horse.
The Northern Cross.
Overhead is the Swan (Cygnus), better
known nowadays as the Northern Cross.
The constellation is easily identified from
the cross-like arrangement of its five
brighter stars, four of which are of the
third magnitude, while the fifth, the nor
thernmost-in the tail of the Swan. head of
the Cross-is nearly up to the first mag
nitude
West of the Swan is the triangular Lyre.
at one corner of which stands the brilliant
Vega. or Alpha Lyrae. Farther west is
Hercules. the Kneeler, and midway be-
tween this constellation and the star Arc
turus stands the beautiful oval Of the
Northern Crown. The region between Her.
Dipper is occupied by Great Dragon
Draco). the two flaming eyes, of which
are at about one-fourth of the distance
from Vega to the bowl Of the Great Dip
per.
Facing the south we have before us the
Eagle, of which the principal star is AL
tair. and at the left (easD of the Eagle,
the beautiful little group of six or eight
small stars which form the Dolphfn-the
"Job's Coffin Of some prosaic modern
star-gazers. Low In the southwest is the
Scorpion. at the center, Of which stands.
the ruddy Antares, the Scorpions Heart"
At the left of the Scorpion Is group of
eight or ten stars, which form a portion
the bow and arrow-of Sagittarius, the
Archer Five of these starS--the eastern
most five-form the Milk Dipper,' so call
ed, apparently, because it is in a position
to scoop up portion of the Milky Way,
at the border of which it stands. Saturn
is now directly above the bowl of this Dip
per and Jupiter is near the end of its short
handle.
The "Demon" Star.
The variable star Algol is now in an ex-
cellent position for observing, and it will
continue to be visible at SeaSonable hour
for several months to come. Ordinarily
this star Is of the second magnitude, as
Will be the case this evening. After shin
ing thus for period of two and a half
days it begins to wane- in brightness until
in about four hours it has fallen to the
fourth magnitude. In this condition 1t re-
mains fifteen or twenty minutes. and then
begins perceptfbly to brighten until at the
expiration Of another four hours 1t has re-
gained its usual splendor. The explana-
ton Of this singular behavior Of the star,
as has been clearly established by means
of the spectroscope. is that 1t is attended
by dark satellite which periodically
eclipses it partially by passing between it
and us, thus cutting off a portion Of it's
light. About twenty variables Of the Algol
type are now known, Of which number
however. only five are bright enough to be
visible to the naked eye. A minimum of
AIgol at an hour convenient for observing
will occur on the 14th Of this month at
about 1910 pm
The history Of this new star may be con-
densed as follows: The star was discov-
cred by DIR. T. d. Anderson at Edinburgh
on the morning Of February 22-evening
Of February q, according to our reckon
ing. It was then of magnitude 81, or but
little above the third magnitude. 1t in
creased In brightness, and on February D
it was nearly, IL not quite, the equal of
Capella, By February % it had fallen to
the average first magnitude. March l 1t
was Of the second magnitude: March 6,
of the third, and March 16, Of the fourth
magnitude. Since this last date the star
has varied with considerable irregularity
from about the fourth to about the fifth
magnitude. It's spectrum on February %
and %. as photographed at the Harvard
College observatory. was of the Orion
type, nearly continuous, traversed by mar
row dark lines. During the next twenty
four hours an extraordinary change took
resembled that of other .novae.' 1t was
traversed by bright and dark bands, and
the principal dark lines had accompanying
bright lines OF slightly greater wave