The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-10-15
OCTOBER EVENINGS.

The evening sky in October is each
year beautiful. The less conspicuous
star groups of summer evenings are
vanishing in the west, while the bril-
liant winter groups are beginning to
appear in the east. The evenings are
sufficiently long and not too cold to
invite the observer to study the stars,
and the awakening interest in intel
lectual pursuits, which the autumn
arouses, finds fitting opportunity in
celestial studies. This year two
bright planets add their welcome
presence to the stellar groups, while
two others, less conspicuous, may be
found with little searching.
The most brilliant star in the even
ing sky is the planet Jupiter, readily
found high in the southeast after
sunset, and visible long after mid
night Saturn is found in the south
as soon after sunset as it is visible,
and sets soon after midnight on the
first days of the month and at 10 10 on
the 31st. 1t is in the constellation
Capricornus. Mars and Uranus are
low in the southwest each evening
and may be seen between z and 8
O'Clock.
The two planets Venus and Mer-
curry, are visible in the morning.
Venus is the brilliant star which
rises before the sun 1t is the most
brilliant of the stars and this month
is unusually bright. even brighter than
when in the evening sky in August.
A simple way to find it is by looking
along wall running north and
south at the time the planet is cross
ing the meridian. Mercury may be
IN, hA
with telescope in the late evening.
Among the phenomena of this
month are four instances of planet
ceasing to move in one direction,
turning and retracing its steps. These
instances as mentioned above, are of
Mercury, Venus and Saturn, which
change their direction of motion from
west to east on the 18th, 9th and Sth
respectively, and of Neptune, which
changes its motion from east to west
on the 10th. AT the same time each
planet is moving in the north or
south, so that it makes loop in turn
ing - Mercury. Venus and Saturn
turning toward the north and Neptune
toward the south at this particu lar
time. All the planets move forward and
backward, the former or cas- tward
motion being the greater of the two.
The westward motion is therefore re-
garded as retrograde. The sun and
moon always seem to move eastward,
though not at the same daily rates.
These facts of observation were sources
of profound difficulty to the early
astronomers and no one could explain
them, until it was proved that the
earth is planet moving round the sun,
and that the moon alone revolves
about the earth. Since we view the
other planets from planet itself in
motion, it is evident that their ap-
parent motion must be compounded of
their own and ours. Since the planets
move, each at a different rate from
that of any other, they must pass by
each other at certain times, when one
will seem to move backward with re-
gard to the other just az when two
vehicles are travelling the same road
i'll the same direction the slower going
one falls behind the other. Knowing
the rate of the several planets and the
relation of their paths, it is quite pos
sible to calculate their positions as
seen from the moving earth, and the
apparent confusion in their paths is
it once accounted for. The discovery
of the earth's minor position in the
universe, while a blow to mans nat
ural pride, furnished the key which
unlocked many mysteries, of which
the planetary motions we're one.