The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1905-09-08

atoms at 9 p. NJ, Sept. 1.
them exactly edgewise they will disap.
pear from view entirely, except in the
largest telescopes, and the planet with
its moons will alone remain visible, as
shown in figure I.
The September Stars.
Figure l shows all of the brighter
stars just as they appear in the sky at
8 O'Clock on any of the evenings Of
September, If the observer will watch
the heavens for few moments only
he will see that the groups toward the
west, or on the right side of the map
are slowly setting while those on the
left are mounting higher and higher
in the sky and new groups, not shown
on the map. are rising in the east to
take their places. A watch of only
ten or fifteen minutes will make this
motion very evident. By 10 o'clock
the group Aries will be we'll up from
the ground in the east, while below
this. in the position occupied by Aries
in figure /, will be seen the constella-
ton Taurus, with the beautiful Pleia-
des and Hyades. Between these two
groups a most striking star will at
once be noticed, star very much
brighter than any of the fixed stars in
the east. This is the planet Jupiter,
which is rising earlier and earlier each
evening and which will for many
months be the most beautiful and con-
spicuous object in the heavens.
A View Of Uranus.
The possessor of small telescope
should not fail to look for the planet
Uranus, not only because it is in
more favorable position for observa
ton than it will be again this year,
but also because it is in a very rich
region of the sky and is surrounded by
many beautiful objects which will we'll
repay examination. To make this
easier part of figure l is shown on
much larger scale in figure .. This
figure is a map of the stars inclosed
within the square at the bottom of
figure /. These may be very readily
found on the sky BY noticing that the
stars A, B, c, E, f and Rare the same
on both maps. Below and to the right
of A, figure 2, will be seen fourth
magnitude star OH; to the left of this
there is row of three sixth magni-
tude stars of which the middle one is
Uranus.
The observer will probably have no
difficulty in finding Uranus with the
help of figures and 2. but when found
its appearance will probably disap-
point him. It's apparent diameter is
only four seconds-that is, it only ap-
pears to be about One-tenth as large
in diameter as Jupiter and therefore
in small telescope it looks almost eX-
actly like a rather small greenish star.
Yet il the observer will compare the
planet with the other stars near it he
|ill soon notice a difference in the
character of its light or luster, while
if he has access to telescope Of four
or five inches aperture the little round
disk will be very distinctly visible.
Has Dense Atmosphere.
The planet is SO inconspicuous in
the telescope only because it is so
enormously far away. Actually it is
great world $4,000 miles in diameter
but so great is its distance from us
that its light occupies two hours and
fOrtyseren minutes in making it's long
journey to the earth, although light
travels more than 10000 miles in one
second of time. The planet is SUR
rounded by very dense atmosphere,
and indeed is very probably wholly
and at high temperature.
It's density is still very low; a cubic
foot of Uranus would only weigh one
fourth as much as a cubic foot of our
earth and apparently many ages must
pass away as it shrinks together and
cools off before it can support any
form of life which we can conceive Of
Four Small Moons.
Uranus is attended by four small