Evening star., 1902-08-02

lines, which, starting at a common point
direrge SO slowly that at "A distance "
three and quarter miles they are bllt oac
Hch apart In order that they should d.
verge TO distance equal to the radius Of
the earths orbit-for the paraIlax of a
star, as can easily be shown is the angie
winch would be subtended BIZ the radius or
the earths orbit al the distance OF the
slarLthese lines must have length OF
nearly twenty million million miles a dis
third years '
The parallax Of 61 Cygni has been deter
mined by several observers and by dirferan.
methods. and from the mean of The ,Iirfar-
ent values obtained-about 0.45 seconds-it
Is calculated that the stars distance from
US Is something over forty M llion-million
HiiIes, or about seven light years" There
Is but one star nearer TO us than this, 50
lar as is now known. namely, AIpha Cen
taurf. a frst-magnitude star in the south
erh hemisphere. the distance Of which IS
commonly put at four and a third
Isht years. The distances of about one
hhndred stars have now been determined
ps thls method of paralax, with a greater
or less margin Of uncertainty.
Meteors.
The August meteors. the "Perseids" as
they are called. from the circumstance that
Their tracks all radiate from a point in The
constellation Perseus, will doubtless make
their customary display this year These
meteors begin to make their appearance
In the latter part of July and may be seen
as late as August 20. The traditional me-
teor nights, when these beautiful objects
appear with their maximum frequency ara
the nights of the 9th and 10Th of this
month Last year, however reports of oh
servers in various localities ali pointed To
the night of August IL that of the finest
display, and probably this will be the case
the present year.
These meteors-which are now know, 10
be simply bits of stone or metal melted and
consumed by the heat engendered by the
friction of the earths atmosphere into
which they plunge with enormous velocity
circle around the sun in a highly elIiptical
orbit that has been found to be identical
with that of a comet known as Comet III
1867, and are supposed to be fragments OF
the comet, the results of its slow disintesra-
ton under the pull and haul of the sun.
They are frequently of great brlliancy, and
while the system has never been known to
furnish shower" they are seen occa-
sionally to shoot at the rate OF fifty or more
to the hour At pm. the meteor radiant
is now situated directly beneath the con-
stellation Cassiopeia. in the northeast.
The Planets.
Mercury will not be visible during this
month. Venus continues to be a brilliant
morning star, rising on the first of the
month two and half hours before the sun
north of east. Mars also is a morning star.
situated on the third of the month about
two degrees northwest of Venus
Jupiter is a splendid evening star and
now shines all night, its opposition to the
sun. when it crosses the meridian at mid
night, occurring on the fifth of the month
Saturn, situated one hour and twenty min
utes west of Jupiter, is easily recognized
as an orange-yellow star of the first magni-
tude. Both Jupiter and Saturn are now
retrograding, or moving westward with
reference to the stars seen beyond them
Uranus, still farther west near the star
Theta Ophiuchi. appears as a star of the
sixth magnitude, just within. reach of the
naked eye. Neptune, never visible without
telescope, is a morning star, in GeminL
half hour west of Mars.