Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1909-09-09
THE sEPTE MEIER SKIES

September opened with an event of un-
uS'iol interest to amateur observers. This
was an oVcu'tation Of Mars on the eve
ming Of the LIST, when. for an hour. the
rcd planet was hidden behind the disc Of
the moon. At rising the planet viii be
seen lust east of the moon. shcrn of most
of its brightness by the proximity of its
dominating neighhor. Unfortunately. 'he
moon vii! he nearly fun. heinz les thHn
tNo days from the Time Of It's opposition.
~ rising tho planet Will he vcrv near
the moon. and at S52 will disappear be-
hind tho eastern limb of the satellite to
,eappear Just on hour later on the west
crn edge. An opera glass will be re-
CURED by most persons for the last few
minutes before immersion.
Not in thirtYtwo years will Mars again
shine rs brightly as he will this month
There Is no danger of mistaking this bril-
liant object hung like a glowing red coal
in the eastern Sky. At this opposition
which occurs Sep;. -. Mars is only about
thirtyfive million miles away
For wear or two there has not been
much of the argument. which for do2 n
years before had raged on the subject
OF what was known, not known. or able
or not. able to be guessed about Mars
The reason Is that about everything that
was possible has been said and iteration
has become useless. one set Of scien-
lists, or near scientists. has been con-
WINGED that not only are the Inhabitants
upon Mars, but that they
were on the point Of signalling to us In
deed. one eminent electrician is sure that
lie has sent signals to Mars, and thinks
he Is pretty sure that he received one
cit n fr1v
nal. and If Mars didn't send IT, who dido
Another set would have II that beyond
doubt Mars is absolutely without air or
water, and with temperature several de
grees below zero: that nobody ever lived
there. and If they did they were dead
millions Of years ago Moreover. they
themselves would die before they would
believe anything to the contrary. ANY
thing which seems to favor another the
ory is optical Illusion. or something called
by shorter and uglier word Others
view the matter with varying degrees of
conservatism which reaches its climax in
the grave dictum of an eminent astrono-
mer that IT IL proven that "the dark
areas are not water The red areas are
not known to he land" Still others are
open to conviction and ready tc respect
any intelligent theory which may explain
the otherwise inexplicable, provided the
theory is based upon reason and analogy
ana claims to be nothing more than il il.
In the view of such. belief comes more
reasonable than doubt as to there being
AT least land. n not water on Mars.
IheN beiieVe, further. that this la d ia
undoubtedly red, giving its color to TN"
planet II Is certain that the color Is on
the SURFACE of the planet itself and not
In the atmosphere above. because tho red
SURFACE Is crossed by markings OF another
color. lf we ask what causes this color
'"r" may ask In return. Why not oxide OF
rom W. do not know that this is 50,
but ny analoS" to the earth II is eS-
tremely sprobablc. The white caps nj
either pole OF the planet undoubtedly wax
and wane as winter ana summer alter
nate In the Marian hemispi: --As- Rnt not