Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1910-02-10

F@Ss FSS9u1r 20 Sno s~os8.
II msn could live as the nortl
pole through one hundred days, he
would be one hundred years old
for q year at the pole is made up O
just one day aud one night.
About the 2lst day of March The
sun peeps above the horizon; bu,
not one in the east, for TO the man
on the pole there 10 no east nor ives,
nor north; there Ia nowhere to 20 bu,
south. A few days later the sun ID
apparently rolling round on the hori
zou for the entire twenty four hours
Withouts timepfece the man at The
pole could not distinguish the 2gtt
day OF March from the 3Oth of March.
To paraphrase a popular saying, all
days in the calendar look alike 10
him.
After apparently rolling over the
horizon for sixty or seventy hours,
the sun. always in full view, begins
a slowly ascending spiral until 10
reaches an altitude OF twenty three
and bali degrees. There are nine.
ty degrees from the horizon 70 the
zenith, and twenty.three and a half
are considerably less than q third
OF ninety degrees; so the man at the
pole doesn't have to lean back ward
gaze at the midday sun.
Aftes some two or three days OF
its greatest altitude, the sun begins
slowly descending spiral course,
and about the middleofSeptemberitis
again rolling round the horizon, and
few hours later, as the last edge
OF It's disappears below the horizon.
night ensues-a night that lasts
from September 2l until the follow
ing March q.
The man at the pole sees all the
stars in the northern half of the
celestial drmanent at one time; he
does not have 30 wait for the revolu-
tion OF the earth on it's axis to bring
any OF them into view. But be can
never see many OF the stars we see,
just as we stay at homes are never
able to see the Southern Cross and
other consultations OF the southern
celestial hemisphere The moon
visits the man at the pole and keeps
him company for weeks, circling the
horizon just as the sun did, but ct q
lower altitude.
The north star, Polaris, is almost
directly overhead is a degree
and fraction. you know. out of true
| north.
At the pole all neridians OF longi-
tude meet; so to describe ones posi-
lion there no longitude Is necessary
only latitude ninety degrees.
The north pole OF the compass
points south at the north pole; so
indeed does the south pole OF th 9
compass, for south is the only di.
rection away from the north pole.
The stars appear brighter, a star
OF one magnitude less than can be
seen in the United States being
easily visible in the arctic regions,
No rotation Of the earth takes place
at the pole. So, IL Mr.. Man was on
the equator, he would be turning
with the earth at the rate OF over
thousand miles an hour, while II at
the exact pole be would not turn
at all-or at most, IL he stood stock
still for twenty-four hours, he him
self would rotate just once.
The pole is the nearest point on
the surface to the earth TO the cen.
ter OF the earth; consequently on
leaving the pole one would have TO
De conticually marching up hill.
For this same reason things weigh
more at the pole than anywhere else
on the surface Of the earth.
II the earth did not rotate, no wa
ter could be got to flow away from
the pole; but the centrifugal force OF
rotation allows this to happen.
A person can see q greater dis
tance from the pole than from snv
other point, because the earth il
Halter there than anywhere else;
that is, the curvature of the surface
is less