The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-07-02

Dragon extends downward to the yellow 1sh star F. and then upward, winding around the Pole through M, meeting the brightest star of the constellation at N and finally ending in the tip of the tail at w. The star at D is a beautiful pair With an opera glass the components be- ing separated by an apparent distance equal to that across the full moon; and. in fact, all the stars J, U, E, F, L, M and are double stars, though many of them are very difficult in the largest telescopes.
 To the Arabians the stars J, B, c and H were sometimes known as the Mother Camels, protecting their Foal, at U, from the two Wolf Stars, K and L. who were lying in wait for it. The Foal is a lit tie pair of stars, easily seen double in a. small telescope. The brightest star of the Dragon, at A, was the Pole Star of 47oO years ago; the central passage of the great pyramid of Cheops was directed to it, as. indeed, were similar passages in many other of these structures Dur ing T centuries the slow course of the procession has carried our pole from this star to Polaris. Cat W), while 5000 years from now the Pole Star will be the bright object at o, and in 12,000 years it will beathe magnificent Vega.
 The reader may now also well trace our the long, winding Serpent of the southern heavens, with Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder, who is holding the twin ing Serpent in his hands. The portions of the Milky Way below and to the left of this group is wonderfully rich in clouds and clusters and indeed it's whole summer branch is so filled with intricate detail and variety that it will well re- ward many evenings of careful explora- ton.
 THE PLANETS IN JULY
 Mercury reached its greatest western elongation on June 30, and for the first few days of the month will be seen shin ing brightly in the down for about one hour before sunrise. It should be looked for well to the north of the east point of the horizon. On July 2S it will enter the evening sky. but it will not attain it's greatest distance east of the sun until September g. Venus enters the morning sky on July and toward the end of the month will become a conspicuous object there. It will attain it's greatest bril- liance on August g.
 Mars, the only planet remaining with us, will pass from Leo well into Virgo during the present month. h moserate- ly large telescope the polar cap and the larger markings may still be made out, but this world is now far too distant to be observed to advantage. To the naked eye it is now even fainter than a first magnitude star; in the telescope it has the shape of the moon when about three days past full
 Jupiter is becoming a conspicuous and beautiful object in the morning heavens. On July 1 it rises about four hours be- fore sunrise, but by July 31 it rises be- fore midnight. This planet will be the reigning object of our evening heavens during the coming autumn and winter months.
 Saturn is in conjunction with the sun on July 12, and so cannot be observed dur ing the present month.
 On July 3, at 8 a. m, the earth will pass through the point of it's orbit which is farthest distant from the sun; on this date we will be more than 100000 miles farther away from the sun than when the two bodies were closest togeth- CT, six months ago.
 THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON
 On the late evening of July 14 our moon in it's eastward monthly journey among the stars will pass into the earth s shadow and large part of it's light will be cut off. The great shadow of the earth stretches out into space directly away from the sun, the extreme tip of the shadow being no less than S57,000 miles away from us This length is, of course, far too small to reach to the stars to any of the planets, but as the distance of the moon is but 240,00O miles, it fol- lows that sometimes, the moon plunges in to the shadow and is eclipsed.
 Tn Figure the large shaded circle rep resents section of the earth's shadow