Arizona republican., 1909-08-12

To Chose WSo are interested in watching the heavens there will, this month, L.. presented several interest ing asStfF mical events. In the hrSt pfnee, there occurs a very near ap- pRoach of Jupiter and Venus, so that for several evenings the two planets will look like a bright twin star in the western sky Then there Is the return of the planet Mars, and on Septernber 1 the rare phenomenon of the passage of the moon between us and this body; a most DeautllV sight when viewed with small tele- soopa- And this month also Is the an nual shower of yellowish, slow-mt'V- ing meteors known as the August shooting stars.
 THE PLANETS.
 The great planet Jupiter, which has been slowly sinking toward the ground in the west, will set a fe" minutes before 9 o'clock on August 1. and is. therefore, just beyond the borders of our map. During the next two weeks 1t will still be consplcu- ous object in the western sky, but before the end of the month will be hopelessly lost in the suns rays al though it will not pass to the east of that body and become morning star until September IS.
 The planet Venus is each evening growing brighter and moving So rap idly upward that it reaches the md de of the constellation of the Nlr- gin bv the end of the month. It passes closest to Jupiter on August F at 7 A NJ. At abOat this time the TWO worlds will form a most beautiful object in a small telescope. The planet Jupiter, crossed by its system of bands and attended by it's four brightest moons. will be seen to be or a reddish yellow color. while the only partly full Venus will have much whiter. silvery hue The first planet is so large that notwithstanding it's enormously greater distance 1t VIII seem to have more than twice the diameter of the second. On August r the narrow crescent moon will pass above the two planets. the three bright bodies so near together will then form a most striking and inter esting figure.
 On the first of the month the planet Mars rises at twenty minutes past nine and before midnight shines out high up in the eastern heavens; toward the end of the month it rises nearly two hours earlier. IL is ap- preaching us so rapidly that during this time it will increase more than one-third in apparent size. almost reaching by the end of the month its most favorable possible position for observation. Through a small tele- scope the white polar caps and the larger markings will be distinctly visible The entire appearance may be somewhat as shown in Figure $; the darkish areas being of a greenish and the lighter of a rose-colored shade. As this world turns on its own axis once in each 24 hours 3l minutes, the observer may view diff ferent hemispheres of the planet on different evenings
 The planet Saturn has not yet en- tered the evening sky, but it rises one hour later than Mars, and Is well up from the ground soon after mid night. If the observer will face the east in the early evening, he will see Mars rise from exactly the same point of the horizon as the stars al NJ, Figure l, while Saturn will rise a little farther north at the same point as the star N SThe rings of Saturn now appear more opened out than al any other time of this year, because