The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-01-31

February brings to our view the
whole of the constellation of Leo, the
Lion, only part of which could be
shown on the January map. This is
one of the so-called zodiacaI constella-
lions, that is one of the consultations
| through which the Sun passes in his
yearly round of the celestial sphere.
This group of stars seems to have
been connected with the figure of a
lion in all the ancient ASTRONOMERS
and owes its particular importance
to the ancients to the fact that the
Sun occupied a position in this very
constellation at the time of the Sum
mer so1stice at a period in history
about corresp onding to the dawn of
scientific knowledge.
Owing to the motion of the celestial
pole called the Procession of the
Equinoxes," the Sun is now in the
group of the Heavenly Twins at the
time of the So1stice. OF ReguIus, the
royal star. the brightest of the Lions
Tail, the unlucky star. Denebo1a, is a
star of a blush tinge and seems to
have been brighter in o1den times
than 1t is now. 1t is approaching the
Earth at the rate of II miles per
second and is now about 33 light years
distant from the solar system. In in
trinsic bril1iancy it is about ten times
as great as the Sun. Gamma Leonis
the bright star just north of ReguIus,
is a well known double star. A small
telescope will reveal the two COM
ponents and show them of different
colors.
Two of the Plants, or Wanderers,
are visible to the naked eye this
month at the time of our map. Saturn
you will find in the constellation of
the Genini, below and to the west
of the two bright stars, and Mars in
Leo, near Regulus. Both can be dis
tinguished from the neighboring
bright stars by the absence of. the
twinkling.
The Total Solar Eclipse of Feb. 3.
A total eclipse or darkening of the
Suns disk is indeed, one of the most
important, as well as interesting of
astronomic phenomena and one which
is not exceedingly rare Yet it is true
that very few people ever get to see
one; but that is because the eclipse,
when it happens, can only be seen as
a total eclipse over very limited area.
Perhaps every one of us has seen
many partial eclipses. but they are Of
less interest as spectacles and of lit
tie or no value to science. The present
eclipse will be seen as a total only
over a narrow strip passing over Co
1ombia and Venezuela and across the
sea to the Azores; but as partial the
eclipse will be visible all over the
United States. In the vicinity Of
Washington and New York the eclipse
will begin approximately at 10 O'Clock
in the morning and end after noon. In
the central part of the country it will
begin earlier.
+ In trying to understand how eclipseS
of the Sun come about, bear in mind
that as the Earth revolves about the
Sun, so the Moon revolves about the
Earth, being now between US and the
Sun, now outside of the Earth's orbit.
The EartE's orbit about the Sun ali
lies in ono plane, called the ecliptic;
neither body ever gets ont of this
plane. Similarly with the Earth and
Moon The Moons orbit around the
Earth lies in a plane, and this plane
is not the same as the abOve-nanQed.
ec1iptic plane, but makes only a small
angle with it. Now, it sometimes hap
pens that III his revolutions about the
Earth the Moon gets right in between
the Sun and the Earth in such a way
as to obstruct the light of the Sun on
its way to the Earth, exactly as some
one might walk between you and the
lamp in your sitting room. The
lamp is then in solar eclipse mas
much as the Moon must always be
directly between tti1e Sun and Earth
at a time OF solar eclipse, the phase
of the Moon which corresponds to this
position is that of new Moon