The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1904-09-21
THE SKIES IN SEPTEMBER.


will be seen this month with degree
of perfection rarely witnessed. Only
once or twice in a lunar circle of 10
years It is impossible to have so great
amount of moonlight in the course Of
successive evenings as win be bestow-
ed during the season of the coming
moon. This is because of the close pro-
ximity Of the full moon to the time Of
the autumn equinox. This latter occurs
on the morning of September %, the
former on the evening of September "a.
Thus, while the sun, in Libra, is cross
ing the line to the south, the fun
moon, in Aries, is directly opposite,
and rapidly moving to the north. As
the moon makes more than II complete
revolutions while the earth is making
one, it must travel over II degrees
while the sun covers one. The result Is
that for several nights in succession
there is no interval of real darkness
between the suns setting and the ris-
ing of the moon, This extraordinary
phenomenon, occurring at exactly the
season required for gathering the pre-
cious grain in the higher ATTITUDES of
the british Isles. seemed to our ances-
tors a direct interposition Of Provi-
dence, and gained the name Of harvest
moon.
1t is now possible to see the planets
without staying up all night. Saturn is
we'll UP at the time the sun goes down.
The planet is seen in the constellation
Capricornus, passing due south at 1880
in the geginning of the month, and four
minutes earlier each evening to its
close, Jupiter now rises little before
8 o'clock, and at the end of the month
a little before I. His great brilliancy
at once distinguishes him. Venus is in
the evening sky, but, setting only half
an hour after the sun, is not to be seen
with any satisfaction. Mars is in the
morning sky, rising about 8 o'clock, in
the costellation OF the Lion. He can be
recognized by his deep-red color, strik-
ingly like that Of the star Antares.
The consultations Of the month are
very beautiful, and unless the promise
of all the years that have gone before
is belied we shall have a clear and
atmosphere on most of the
September nights. This will come as a
welcome relief after the murky skies
of August Chief among the glories of
the September night is the Milky Way,
which passes the zenith during the
evening hours, and consequently is
seeh in its greatest perfection. The
great figure Of the Northern Cross pas
ses overhead at an early hour, the star
Sad'I@ which joins the arms to the body
of the cross, passing near Deneh, which
forms the head of the Cross, is situated
at the beginning of the great rift which
extends southwark along the Milky
Way. The sky in this part of the
Heavens is enormously rich in stars
even an opera glass bringing them out
in countless and bewildering profusion.
In the Milky way north of this cross.
is the consideration Cassiopeia, marked
by an irregular W-shaped figure of six
bright stars Still further along we
come to Persaus, marked by a bending
row of three stars. From the middle
and brightest of these stars-Mirfae, by
another and vastly
longer row Of stars, running to the east
and south, and ending in Great Of Pc
gasus. Three of these stars, including
Alpheraz, in the corner of the square,
belong to the constellation Andromeda.
In September, on account of its position
and the atmospheric condition prevail
ing, is the best season Of the year to
look at the wonderful nebula which this
holds. 1T is the only ne
buIa which can be seen by the naked
eye-to which 1t appears as fazy
star. Viewed with an opera glass, 1t
appears as wide as the full moon, clip
tical in shape brighter in the center,
and fading out at the edges. In the
telescope it stretches out to five times
the breath OF the moon.
To find this wonderful object, take
the star Mjrachtlle star next to AL
and look about 10 moonbreadths above.
Two small stars, leading away from
Miraeh, will indncate the direction.
The telescope seems to indicate a
spiral nebuIa seen sideways, but the
shows q. spectrum strik-
ingly similar to that OF the sun. It
seems, in fact, q nebula which has been
formed into suns but sunk at such an
enormous distance into space that. the
most powerful telescopes will not re-
solve it into stars. IL this explanation
is correct, then the nebula must be at,
such a distance and of such dimens-
ions, that not only would light require
thousands of years to reach us, but it
would also require thousands of years
to travel from one end of the nebula
to the other.
West of the Northern Cross is the
brilliant white star Vegar, in the con-
stellation of he Lyre. Declining to the
west is the great star Arcturus. Be-
tween these splendid stars lie the vast
but formless constellation of Hercules
and the beautiful semi-circle of the
Northern Crown.
On october . there will be a total
eclipse Of the sun, but it will not be
visible here. Mars will be in conjunc-
ton with. the moon on October Z. ,Sa-
turn on October 30 and Jupiter on Oc-#
tober g. In the latter case the moon
will be distant from the planets about
four times its own breadth.-New York
Globe.
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HARD LOT OF A WYOMING
5e EDITOR. ~-4 %-*~