El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-12-28

There is little doubt that at least so
of the Pleiades surpass in magnitude
and brilliancy our own glorious sun,
and Alcyone is at least 10 times as
brilliant. The stars are suns, and our
sun is a star, but it is a rather small
and Insignificant star in the great uni
verse. Verify, 'one star differeth from
another in glory"
Importan.e of Photos
The Importance of the Photographic
plate in revealing dim celestial objects
is nowhere better shown than in the
portrayal of the Pleiades. Faint traces
OF a cosmical nebular cloud enshroud-
ing some Of these far off brilliant suns
were detected so years ago In 1890,
professor Barnard found usually that
the nebulous matter stretched off faint
ly in long curving streaks, an obser-
vation abundantly verified two years
later by him from photo graphs with his
Willard lens. Modern photographs with
great rejecting telescopes show the
Pleiades to be completely enshrouded
in a magnificent tracery of filny ma
terial, which makes it one of the most
magnificent objects in the sidereal uni
verse: No words can express the ex-
quisite beauty of the delicate fila
ments twining and INTERVENING, and
running in long straight lines for mil
lions Of miles. Here is one Of the most
signal triumphs for the Photographic
plate The skilled eye of the trained
astronomer applied to the powerful
telescope sees but little nebulous ma
terial around the Pleiades. and that
imperfectly- What a wonderful group
of stars this is, and how small and in
significant our earth in comparison,
HaIIeyss Comet.
This famous comet is not vet out OF
reach of the powerful Photographic
telescopes and not till the middle of
February will it be as faint as it was
when discovered byNWolf on September
II, 1909. The comet rises we'll before
midnight. The feebleness of this cele-
brated comet compared 10 its 1895 and
1883 appearances is readily explained.
by the light pressure theory of COM
cts, that matter is being continually
driven off from the head, and that the I
comet is being slowly consumed by its
own emanations. A similar effect is
seen in Comet 1889 Y, lately rediscov-
cred Gas mentioned last month";. This
comet Is fainter than ever before, and !
at its next return seven years hence.
II will be so feeble that IT in all prob
ability will not be picked up.
The Planets.
On the fourth of the month Mercury !
Venus and Uranus viii be close togeth- !
er in the early western evening sky.
Dul lHeN Will ali De TOO cloSe TO the (
sun TO be well seen. Mercury is q !
star. towards the end of the |
month. but is unfavorably placed
Venus is slowly getting away from !
the suns rays, and towards the end |
Of the month may be picked up in the /
shortly after sunset As the /
months roll by. Venus will gradually /
increase in brightness till the summer |
time 1t will become the most brilliant |
object in the sky While Venus sets !
later each night after the sun, Mars |
will rise each morning earlier. and by
the end of the month will rise about |
three hours before the sun 1t is about
sOO.OO0,000 of miles away from the i
earth, ard consequently not conspicu-
BUS
Jupiter likewise rises earlier each
night. at the present time coming
above the horizon shortly before mid
night 1t may readily be found
Saturn continues TO be the most gor-
5eous object in the evening sky. On
he goth of the month it is in quadra-
ure, or 80 degrees east of the sun, and
VIII be on the meridian at sunset See
your small telescope can show the
tivisfon in the rings. On the night of
he eighth, about midnight, Saturn and
he moon will be close together.
saturn being but two diameters south
# the moon 1t will be an appearance
Worth seeing
Uranus is in conjunction with the
un on the 18th of the month. and is
therefore, too near the sun to be SEEN
septune may be picked up by the teIe-
cope from its position on the map in
he constellation Gemini.