The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-08-02


 High up in the August sky. in the early days of the month, almost exactly in the zenith, is the pride of the northern celestial hemisphere, the b1ue-white star Vega. Shining with. a light very. much like that of an cleo tric arc in color, it is, next to the great Dog Star Sirius, the brightest of all the stellar objects. You should have no trouble in locating it exactly, as it is the very bright star directly over head. And we may well admire, it, as ancients did, who saw in it and the constellation Lyra, to which it, be- longs, the wonderful Tyre or harp of Orpheus, who descended into Hades and there regained from Pluto his lost bridel To the Romans it's morning setting marked the beginning of au- tunn.
 Nor does Vega. lack scientific in terest: Due to the phenomenon which astronomers call the Procession of the Eqninoxes 9the slow motion of the equinoctial points along the equator). the North Pole is gradually moving in the heavens. Near the star called AL paa Ursae Minoris now, it will grad ual1y move away, and in some 12,OOo years Vega will become the pole star again as it was once in the dim ages past.
 The distance of Vega from the earth is fairly well determined as 29 light years, the light-year being the dis tance light, which travels about 188.0eO miles in second, will go in a year. Again, the apex of the solar system, that is the point in the heavens toward which the sun with it's satellites is speeding, is very near to the point which Vega now occupier: but, luckily for us, in the many millions of years which will elapse before the earth reaches the proxf 4ty of Vegas pres ent position that start will have oblig- ing1y moved itself out of the way. Therefore no grounds for worry ex- ist.
 Clear of the horizon now, we have in the eastern sky -the great constella- ton of Pegasus, the Flying Horse. The three most brilliant stars of Pe-5 gasus and the brightest of the stars belonging to the group Andromeda a little farther to the northeast form square called "the. Great Square of Pegasus The brightest of the stars of the Flying Horse. called Alpha Pe- gasi or Markab is one of the stars most used by mariners for getting so-called lunar distances for determining 1ongi- posed to denote death from wounds or fire.
 Andromeda-saved from the sea monster by the hero Perseus-is just rising over the horizon. Toward the southeast is the ancient constellation
 
 is one = the zodiacal constellations, and the sun sin this group in Feb #ruary. It was in this constellation that the planet Uranus was first seer. in 1756, though not positively identi- fled as a planet till later by Her scheI.
 Jupiter, the great planet, :s grad ually improving his position in the sky and will be a much better object later. in the year. Nevertheless one can observe him now as he rises a. about o'clock. The best time to view him or any other celestial object is of course, when the object is on the me ridian or near it; therefore, we shall postpone our discussion of Jupiter till a later date. Uranus. the farthest planet but one from the sun, is in po- sftion for possible observation this month His position can be seen by reference to the map, where he will be found in the southeastern sky. He VIII Tn brightness be equivalent to tsar of the sixth fnagnitude-hardly an object for the naked eye and at best an object of not too great inter est even with the opera glass or a tel escope Yet one would like to be able to say that he has seen this planet as It is one of the two big planets of the sun which were unknown to the star wise ancient world. The other planeI IS Neptune, discovered through matn- ematical calculations.
 otISICh1AS rom horizon 1n the north to horizon in the south through the highest parts of the sky is the con- spieuous. irregu1arly- shaped band of tsars called the Galaxy or Milky Way. It makes. a complete circle on the ce- lestial sphere, though of course we in this lotftude do not see the same DOT ttons of it that those in the southern Hemisphere do. Bu the fact that it is a complee great circle is important in trying to explain why there should be a gathering of stars so much denser here than in other parts of the heav- ems. The accepted theory in explan- atlon of this today is that the uni verse of -stars and ccsrnic matter. -c,c-