The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-12-29

This month of January will pre- serve a total eclipse of the moon, which will be visible throughout the United States and Canada It will occur on the morning of the 9th at about o'clock, and the totality will last about one hour and 28 minutes. The moon will begin to enter the utn- bra or deep shadow of the earth, at about ten minutes of one and will emerge entirely out of it at about half past four. The total time of the eclipse will thus be about four hoursy during which at least part of the moon will be visible. except dur ing the time given above for the to- tai eclipse. If you wish to see the earth's shadow creep over the bril- liantly illuminated disk of the full moon begin your watch by 1 o'clock.
 These hours are all given for East ern Standard time. so that those liv- ing in other, time belts must make the necessary corrections by sub- tracting one hour for Central time two hourss for Rocky Mountain time. three, hours for Pacific time and add ing one hour for Intercolonial time. For example if the observer lives in the Middle West, where Central time isaused, he will find that the totality begins at i o'clock instead of two. The phenomenon will be we'll worth the trouble of being up at that early hour, for you will have before you a visible demonstration of the orbital motions of the celestial bodies and no slight hint as to the mechanics of the solar system and the universe.
 The Mechanics of a Lunar Eclipse.
 The phenomenon of eclipses of the moon is primarily due to the fact ,that in the solar system the only body that gives off light of it's own is the Sun and that all other bodies, planets or Satellites, of the system are rem dered visible only through the sum- X light which they receive and reflect back. The moon is visible to us then. only by virtue of such borrowed light The earth rOtates about the sun and the moon rotates about the earth. It is, therefore, easily con- ceivable that at some time it may happen that the earth will get ab- solutely in a. straight line between the sun and moon and thus cut off all light by the interpretation of it's bulk. This leaves the moon practi- cally. invisible, and we on the earth say that the moon is in eclipse. Nat urally the continued rotation of the moon about the earth soon brings the moon out of the vast shadow which the earth is casting into space and it is, once more rendered visible to us. This explanation of the sud- den darkening of the moons disk was first given by the ancient master of astFonomy, the Greek Hipparchus, to rt@rxr~ al. LI~>
 and observations are credited
 An eclipse of the moon can occur only at the time that the mons phase is full moon, because only at that time can the, sun, earth and moon be approximately in a straight line with the earth in between. The phenOme4as of lunar phases and eclipses are not to be confused al- though there is naturally close con- nection between them. There will not always be an eclipse of the mooN at the time of full moon, because the orbit Of the moon and that of the earth do not lie in the same plane, and for the greater part it will hap ! pen that at the time of full moon Ithe moon will be little above or little below the line joining sun and earth and therefore outside Of the shadow cast by the earth; then the full moon will pass without the oc- currence of an eclipse, full or partial A partial eclipse of the moons disk occurs when the moon <only in mart enters the shadow. In this \eclinse lof January 8, the moon will for the time enter entirely into the shadow
 The Planets.
 Jupiter is our evening star this month and glows in the western sky with brilliancy that reminds us strongly of the matchless Venus, which was our evening star net many months ago and whose return to this position we will sooN welcome At present Venus rises about two hours before the sun and does duty as a morning star. Saturn was can see eastward of the meridian below the twin stars, Castor and Pollux.
 On January 3 the earth will be in perihelion, that is in that position in it's orbit in which it is nearest the sun. The orbit of the earth about the sun has the shape of an eclipse, or oval and the sun is not at the center but at point the geometri- cians call the focus of the eclipse which is a bit off the center Of course, Sfn the case of the earth, the orbit is very nearly circle and the eilipticity is very slight, so that the dference in the distance from the sun at the nearest approach and at the furthest is only approximately 3,0OO,- 900 miles in a total of 93,00O,0OO Che nsarness of the sun has only 8