The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-18
FOUR ECLlPSES IN 1905
ONLY TWO WILL BE VISIBLE ON D THIS CONTINENT.
One of Sum and One of Moon--Partial Ecllpses of Moon and Sun in Au- gust May be Generally
 Observed.
Washington Post.

Washington Post.
 While the new year comes in today the celestial program, possibly owing to the Christmas. holidays not being over. does not contain a number on a date earlier than the 5th of the month The outlook for 1905 Is feassuring, and promises much that VIII attract and in- terests There will be the usual num- bef of visits in which the moon and planets shine in pleasing contrast. and the glorious consultations will as usual, add an interest to our study of the evening heavens.
 We are to have four eclipses this year---two of the sun and two of the moon. There is to be q partial eclipse of the moon in February, which we are not to be permitted to see, and another in August, which will be quite general ly visible on this continent. The an- nular eclipse of the sun in March Is not for us, and in fact. the Australians are about the only people who will be able to profounce on It's beauties. Tn August. however, we shall see a partial eclipse here, and if we care to visit our Canadian friends to converse on mat ters of reciprocity they will in addi- ton make fair return by showing us the wonders and mystery that always are associated when day is so magi- cally turned to night
 We find the sun today at a little more than 23 degrees such declination. from which point he will have advanc- ed degrees before the months close The rate is an accelerating one, being more than three times as rapid on the last day of the month as it Is at pre- sent. This statement, at a time of year when the cold is more severe than 1t was when the sun was at it's farth- est south always seems hard to under stand. But we all know that when the days begin to Iengthen the cold be- gins to strengthen, and people have prepared for 1t ever since the original costumer set the style in the Garden of Eden and leaves were used to shut out the cold stare of the outer world
 New Year of Ancient Greeks.
 It would seem as though the ancient Greeks had better idea of the fitness If things when they began their year with the winter solstice, which occurs at the time the sun finds itself at it's tians and PSrsians of old counted it from the autumnal equinox in septem- ber So far as concerns the Jews, however, this was the beginning of their civil year only. Their sacred year dated from the vernal equinox in March. Various dates have been selected bv other people for making this event, but none seems much more arbitrary than our own. But our style is so we'll established. so widely known and so generally followed that for many physical and scientific reasons 1t could now be hardly changed to ad- vantage.
 The December moon holds on until the 5th, when the first moon for the new year comes to us on the l3th. Eight days later we have the first quartering. and the glory of the win ter's full moon will be ours on the night of the goth. The last quertering happens on the 27th. There are rather more than the customary seven con- functions between moon and planets in January. as the moon and Uranus are twice close together. One or two of these meetings are suficientIy close to me attractive The moon, like the sun. has always had her worshippera. and has generally been spoken of as being in the feminine gender. How ever. the Scandinavians view the moon as a god and the sun as A goddess. which inversion of gender is common among several of the countries of the far East. Possibly. the Iugubrious and unmistakably masculine countanance which the full moon shows may be to some extent responsible for this. Yet curiously enough, the picture seen in the lunar spots has not been SO gem orally a. human head. The folklore as generally accepted gives the impress ion of a hare rather than that of a bu- man being.
 ''T'he Sum Do sIOve.0
 When the old negro preacher gained lasting fame by asserting that sun do move." he was only giving voice to a fact long recognized by astronomers. and recently considered so important that an expedition was fitted out to take photographs and make observa- is going on about us, or perhaps just what we are going about ourselves The result has been a determination that the solar system Is moving appar- ently toward the star Vega, in the con