Evening star., 1901-07-27

| and the result has been to render stu
more unlikely the main assumption or
Herschel. Upon photographs the Milky
way has all the appearance of being
sentially cloud formation; 1t presents the
same appearance as to the naked eye. but
brought out even more distinctly. The i'm
preston of profound depth which one gets
| in surveying 1t through q telescope is rot
that which he gets from the Photographic
plates. On the contrary, the appearance
here is that the depth of this cloud forna-
tion is not great. and that the stars which
form the cloud are all at practically the
same distance from us. But are these stars
large small? The answer to this ques-
ton involves that Of the distance OF the
Milky Way.
The prevalent opinion among astrono-
mers now seems to be that the Milky Way
is vastly remote in comparison with the
distance Of the naked-eye stars Its stars
are still spoken of as suns" but there Is
much to be said In favor of the view first
distinctly supported by Prof e. E. Bar
nard, based upon discussion of some of
his photographs of the Milky Way, that
the stars which form its groundwork are
comparatively small bodies, perhaps thou
sands of times smaller than the SUM-"
The nature of the Milky Way is among
the most interesting of pending astronomi-
cal questions.
The Perseid Meteors.
The meteors known as the Perseids.
from the circumstance that they all shoot
from the direction of a point in the con-
stellation Perseus, may now be looked for.
Meteors belonging to this system may be
seen from about the middle Of July to the
Goth of August. and are usually especially
numerous on the night of the 9th or 10th
of the month.
nids-which have behaved so badly OF late
years-seem to be quite equally distributed
around their orbit, and the annual maxi
mum display is usually something worth
watching DAnninU
Bristol, England, the leading authority on
meteors, says that the average number Of
Perseids annually visible to one observer
when the display is at its best is eighty
per hour. According to the same authority
the average height at which the meteors
make their appearance is eighty miles, and
that of their disappearance is fifty miles.
Meteors belonging to this system are
above the average of brilliancy, and not
infrequently are really magnificent objects.
The position of the radiant is shown on
the chart given herewith Note its rela-
tion to the stars in Cassiopeia At Q pm.
it is now about fifteen degrees above the
horizon, between north and northeast.
The Planets.
Mercury has been morning star siEce
July 13, and will continue to be such until
the 9th Of this month. On the I'd OF the
month 1t was at its greatest elongatlon
west from the sun. Look for the planet in
the east an hour or less before sunrise. It
should be observable until near the middle
of the month.
Venus has been an evening star since
April 80, and Is now far enough east OF
the sun to be visible. 1t may be seen low
in the west a half hour or less after sun
set.
Mars. an evening star. sets on the 1st OF
the month about $50 pm. Its position
now Is about ten degrees west Of Spica.
1t Is moving eastward. and at the close Of
the month it will be nearly as far east OF
that star.
Jupiter now crosses the meridian at
about pm. and is followed by Saturn
twenty minutes later. Both planets are
now at their best as naked-eye objects.
and except for their low altitude are in
their most favorable position for observ-
ing with a telescope. Uranus, appearing
as a star Of about the fifth magnitude, Is
six or seveen degrees northeast Of An
tareS.