Evening star., 1902-03-01
THE HEAVENS IN MARCH
Matters of Interest to ANA
teur Astronomers.
AMOUNT OF STARLIGHT
A PROBLEM RECENTLY STUDIED
BY TWO SCIENTISTS.
Consultations That Are Now Above
the Horizon-Planets of
the Month.
Written ser The Evening Star.

Written tor The Evening Star.
OF the fourteen stars Of the first magni-
tude. which may be seen at one time or an
other by an observer in the mean latitude
of the United States, ten will be above the
horizon at 0 o'clock this evening. They
are Pollux, the more southerly Of the
Twins castor and Pollux,, nearly over
head: Procyon. the Little Dog Canis Mi
nor) in the south. at three-fifths Of the
distance from horizon to zenith; Sirius, the
brilliant Dog Star (Canis Major), below
and at the right of Procyon; Betelgeuse. in
the right shoulder, and Rigel, in the left
foot of Orion A!debaran. the Bulls Eye
ir the west at about the same height as
Sirius; Capella. In the northwest. somewhat
higher than Aldebaran; Regulus, in mid
heavens between east and southeast; Arctu-
rus. the Bear Warden. and Spica, the
Wheat Ear, the former between east and
northeast, the latter a little south of east,
but both too low to be visible.
The remaining stars Of the fourteen re-
ferred to above--the four which are not
row visible at the hour named-are Antares
In the Scorpion: Affair. in the Eagle; Vega,
in the Lyre;. .Formalhaut, In the Southern
Fish. There are six other stars of the
first magnitude, making the whole number
twenty. of which ten are in the northern
and ten in the southern hemisphere of the
heavens. These six. which are too far
south to rise above the horizon of WASH
tngton, are the following: Canopus. which
ranks for brilliancy next to Sirius and IS
situated almost due south from that star
III the constellation Argo; Achernar. in
Eridanns (the River Po). which runs wind
ingly in a southwest direction from Rigel
to that star; Alpha and Beta of the Cen
taur, and Alpha and Beta of the Southern
Cross. At Key West all Of these stars
may appear above the horizon. Alpha Cru
els, the southernmost Of them. attaining
when on the meridian an altitude of about
three degrees. The Southern Cross is there
fore visible in the extreme south of the
United States. 1t may be of interest to
note here that this famed constellation
has a length tTiie greater than the in
terval which separates the two Pointers"
Of the Great Dipper-about five degrees
and that it's distance from the south celes
tial pole is very nearly the same as that
of the Pointers from the north pole. The
two stars which form the upright of the
Cross. Alpha and Gamma. range almost ex-
actly north and south. as do the two Point
ers In the Dipper, and thus serve. like them
to indicate the position of the pole.
At New Orleans Canopus may appear
seven and a half degrees above the hori-
zon. This star is therefore now among the
first magnitude visible on clear evening
in that latitude
Consultations.
The most notable of the constellation
now above the horizon at 9 p.m.-two hours
earlier at the close of the month-are
Orion. in mid-heavens in the southwest:
the Trsa Major, or Great Bear. of which
the most striking portion is the Great Dip
per-the Plow. as it is called in England
at high altitude in the northeast: Cassi-
opeia. the Lady in her Chair correspond
ingly low in the northwest Leo. the Lion.
we'll up toward the zenith, between east
and southeast, the head and shoulders of
which are formed by the Sickle of mod
ern star-gazers the Twins fGemini nearly
overhead; Auriga, the Wagner. easily
located by means of the star CapeIla in his
left shoulder. high in the northwest; Tau
rus. the Bull, in mid-heavens in the west.
and Perseus. between Auriga and the
northwestern horizon.
All of these consultations are we'll mark
ed with stars and with the aid of the
chart given herewith should easily be iden-
titled. The old-style outlines are not given
here for the reason that these 'uncou-. :.
figures" as they were contemptuously
called by Sir John Herschel. drawn with
very little reference to the stars and never
particularly ornamental. seem calculated
to obscure rather than to illustrate the
conceptions of the ancient star-gazers. Re
cent celestial charts have discarded these
senseless figured consultations altogether.
Total of Starlight.
The question of the total amount Of light
which we receive from the stars has re-
Gently been Investigated by two astrono-
mers Independently of each other, Prof.
Simon Newcomb, in --rlerica, and Mr.. J.
E. Gore. in England, who have reached
substa ntially the same conclusions so far
as they have covered the same points. Mr..
Gore starts with the assumption that the
number of the stars down to and inclusive
of those of the seventeenth magnitude the
faintest visible through our largest tele-
scopes. is about 100000 0O0 He assumes
also that the light ratio Is 2512-now ac-
cepted by all astronomerS-that is. that q
star of the first magnitude gives 2.512 times
the light of second magnitude star and
SO on: Having estimated the number of
stars of each magnitude he calculates
Is equivalent to the light which would be
received from $50 stars of the brightness of
Arctur,rs-the zero magnitude To this
estimate rs added the light of thirty stars
of the zero magnitude to represent the
probable amount of light received from the
nebulae.- making the total equivalent to the
light of $50 zero stars. -
Sunlight is assumed by Mr.. Gore to be
1880. .0c0,0e0 times the light of Sirius, this
cordant estima tes of the relative briIIiances
of these two objects by different astrono-
mers. and moonlight Is assumed to be
equivalent to this number divided by -G1S,-
600. Figuring upon this basis, he reaches
The conclusion that starlight equals one
eightieth of moonlight. Since we can re-
cefve at one time the light of only one-half
OF the stars. the total light received from