The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-02-15

Ahs MouVh--Ihe Celebration for
 WashingtOn's Birthday.
 A general shifting of the planets oc- CUTS during February, so that their positions will be very different at the close of the month from what they are at the beginning. Let 1t be remembered that the planets are the nearest of all the stars, really not stars at all, but satellites of certain star that is so near us that we call 1t the sun. The planets are attached to the sun as the moon is attached to the earth; they CO., stantly revolye about the sun as the moon constantly revolves about the earth. There Is however but one moon; but there are eight planets. In the order of their distance from the sun their names are these: Mercury Venus, Earth Mars Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The first four or these are the little children; the latter four are the suns big children; for there Is a great difference In the size Of these two quartets of children, Jupiter, as compared with the earth, for instance, having 10 times its diameter, disc 100 times as great seen at the same distance, and a volume 1000 times as great. Jupiter is the exceedingly bright planet seen now In midheavens in the early evenings.
 These planets, as distinguished from the great mass of stars, have no light in themselves; they are essentially dark bodies, and would never be seen at all if the sun did not shine upon them; in this respect, agin they are like the moon, which only reflects the light of the sun. If the sun should expire, in eight minutes the moon would do the same, and later, In suc- eession, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Ju- pited and Saturn would all disappear It would be some hours before Saturn would vanish, because of it's distance from the sun. If the sun should ex- pire, the rays of light which left it shortly before would still be travelling toward Saturn and, reflected from his surface, travelling back again toward the earth. It is like throwing water a long distance from the nozzle of a hose; if the nozzle be suddenly closed, the water just before issuing there from will, of course, continue to stream onward until 1t reaches the end of it's journey, when no more will follow.
 Now, of the eight planets, since we are travelling on one of them, it is manifest that Earth can never be seen shining in the sky. There are also two of them so distant that, notwith- standing their superior size they can be seen only with telescope; these are Uranus and Neptune, The other five can be seen at various times sometimes none of them happening to be in the sky when observation is made, at rare intervals all being visible at once, but more commonly one or two being there together. Mercury runs so close to the sun that he Is usually lost in bright ness; Venus, too, spends a great deal of her time In his gloryfi notwithstand- Ing the superb magnificence of her lus- ter Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are of- ten on prolonged exhibition, and such has been the case during recent months iE the evening sky,
 But the shifting about of the planets about to occur, was referred to. It is close at hand but will have to be taken largely on faith later. On February 14, at o'clock in the morning the plan ct Venus will cross over from the morning to the evening sky This means that, instead of going around the sun, this orb will pass the sun on the further side, from west to east, or right to left, venus's distance from the earth will then be her own distance from the sun plus the earth's distance from the sun, for the sun will now stand nearly between the two bodies: this will place her at about 160,000,000 miles away. This, compared with the 24,000,000 when she swings past the sun in the other direction and passes be- tween sun and earth Is very great. Henceforth Venus will set after the sun and later each evening as she works Ser way eastward in her look forward to with high anticipation; for, while Venus has for months, until lately, been gloriously conspicuous in the early morning sky, it is probable that but few have taken pains to find her there.
 Now, on the 16th of the month, at midnight, Jupiter will be at quadrature with the sun, that is, 90 degrees east of the sun, on the meridian at D. m. and setting at about midnight; thereafter Jupiter will set earlier and earlier; for while his actual motion is eastward among the stars, the earth's own mo- ton in going around the sun throws all that part of the heavens back west ward; so that, while Venus is working up from the setting sun, Jupiter Is working down toward the setting sun; and it logically follows that Jupiter and Venus are approachig each other. As these are the two brightest of all the shining stars, 1t now becomes 8 matter of interest to see them get together, for get together thy will, since thy both move in essentially the same plane, wl1ich means that as seen from the earth. they both travel in the same ce- lestial avenue.
 The moons steady motion along this same avenue helps us to rough meas urement of the decreasing separation of these two planets, thus in February the moon passes Venus orbit; conse- uuentiy. we shall have the opportunity of seeing this magnificent orb in the southwestern sky before very many weeks have gone by; and it is some- thing to on the 2d, and then reaches
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