The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-02
THE SKIES IN APRIL.


 THE SKIES IN APRIL.
 Positions of the Planets During the
 Coming Month.
 In the course of the month of April the moon will present the following phases: First quarter on the 4th, full on thea1th. last quarter on the 18th and new on the Eth. She will be in perigee on the 5th. and again exactly at midnight on the 3oth; in apogee or the 18th. While on the first of the month the sun will be 1 degrees, Il minutes and % seconds north of the equa- tor, he will be fl degrees 47 minutes north 6f the equator at noon of the last day. The planet Mercury during the greater portion of the month will be in rjoces, but toward it's termination will enterN Aries. Soon after the setting of the sun and a considerable time before the evening twi- light ceases to irradiate the heavens, the brilliant light of Venus will flash upon the observers eyes. During the first DOT ton of the month she will set a little before o'clock, and every successive evening will set later. so that at the ter imitation of the month this beautiful evening star par excellence may be seen until almost 10 o'clock. In the course of the greater part of April she will be in Aries. but toward the end enter within the boundary lines of Taurus. On the 29th she will be in conjunction with the moon, being then degrees minutes dis tant from the latter. Looking east and near the meridian we see the fiery red planet Mars in the constellation Leo, enhancing the intrinsic beauty of the lat ter. Mars will be on the meridian at first near midnight, and toward the con- clusion of the month little before 10 o'clock. On the 10th of the month this planet will be but degrees distant from the moon. Whilst thus Venus and Mars act in the capacity of evening stars, the two greatest planets of the solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, will figure as morn ing stars. The former. being in Aquarius. will rise between 3 and o'clock, and the latter. being in Capricornus, between l and o'clock.
 Since the axis of the earths shadow is always directed to a point exactly oppo- site the sun, it sometimes happens that when the moon is near the ecliptic and not far from one of the nodes of her orbit, she will pass into the shadow of the earth and be eclipsed. Since however, the moons orbit Is inclined about de- grees to the plane of the ecliptic, this OCCulB HOt tCiy tiCQucHtiy, uOTc than twice a year. Ordinarily the moon passes north or south of the shadow without touching 1t. When the moon is completely immersed in the shadow of the earth the eclipse is total; out if only portion of her disc is eclipsed the eclipse is partial. Such a partial lunar eclipse will occur on the 11th of April and 1t will be partly visible in this latitude. The be- ginning of the eclipse will be generally visible in Europe, Africa, the Western portions of Asia and the eastern portions of South America; the ending will be vis- ible generally throughout Europe, Africa, South America and the eastern portions of North America.
 The science of astronomy Is a compre- hensive one, for in order to study and un- derstand 1t in all Its completeness 1t has become necessary to know mathematics analytical mechanics. physics and chemIs- try, and thus 1t pre-eminently proves the necessity. more and more recognized, of drawing different sciences into the bond of correlation. Before the establishment of that powerful branch of mathematics. the calculus. which in German is very significantly designated by the name of the higher analysis" 1t was impossible to subject the motions of the celestial bodies to that rigorous investigation which is one of the greatest triumphs of mathematics and a valid and splendid testimony of It's almost magical potency. In ancient times, when mathematics was confined to Euclid. when algebra was yet in very crude state, trigonometry and analytics unknown, only crude knowl- edge of the celestial bodies could be gained by mere observation, and that only with the unassisted eye. An i'm mense step toward progress in the knowl- edge of celestial bodies was taken by the establishment of the Copernican system and the famous laws of Keper, which at once raised the whole subject upon a sci- entifc basis. When the great Newton an nounced the fundamental law of the uni verse-gravitation-an both he and Leib- nitz established the calculus the science of astronomy was at once lifted upon a still higher level and an impetus was i'm parted to the study of the science which could not but prove irresistible. Geniuses like Laplace, Lagrange and Gauss ap- piled that powerful level-mathematics- to mechanics and extended it to the ce- lestial bodies. so that at the beginning of the nineteenth century the dynamics of these bodies was completely established. Yet up to the middle of the past century astronomy, while maintaining her strict union With mathematics, looked with in difference on the rest of the sciences; it was enough that she possessed the tele- scope and the calculus. Now, as a noted writer remarks, the materials for her in- auctions are supplied by the chemist, the electrician, the inquirer into the most recondite mysteries of light and the mole cular constitution of matter. She is con- cerned with what the geologist, the me teorologist. even the biologist, has to say; she can afford to close her ears to no new truth of the physical order. Her position of loftY isolation has been exchanged for one of community and mutual aid. The astronomer has become in the highest sense of the word. a physicist, while the physicist is bound to be something of an astronomer. Astronomy in its widest sense is, then, a science of nature whose conclusions are not only presumed by analogy but are ascertained by observa- tion, to be valid wherever light can travel and gravity is obeyed-a science by which the nature of the stars can be studied on the earth and the nature of the earth can be made better known by study of the stars; a science, in a word, which is, or aims at being. one and universal, even as nature-the visible reflection of the in visible highest unity-is one and univer- GnI hn hov oe