The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-27

| 'OBCtucI. II tue eaftn passes MdrS
 when the planets are in the region
 marked R, the approach is evidently
 much closer one.
 
 in the evening skies It will be found
 almost. exactly due south in the early evening, very near the border line be- | tween the groups Cancer and Leo This planet is now nearly three times as bright as the golden Saturn nearby. ! and it is six times as bright as the l neighboring bluish star. Regulus: the ] silvery Venus, however, far exceeds it. for this, our Sister World, now shines 1 in the west with 1 , times the bright
 ness of the planet Mars
 The reader who has been watching the interesting motions of our even 1 ing planets will remember how very rapidly Mars ran eastward across the consultations until by January 1 it had advanced well into Leo and how since
 that time it has been moving slowly westward again. This westward-or planet begin again to move eastward on the 22d of the present month, but ! throughout all of March Mars will change it's position among the stars but very little.
 Even in small telescope the white caps OI lDlS planet are very ulS- tinctly visible, while if the seeing is
 good one may detect the Hour Glass sea, the Lake of the Sun the Great South sea, and a few other of the larger surface markings. But, never theless, except in the largest glasses, l this interesting little world is a rather disappointing object. Mars is so small a world, being only 4230 miles in diameter. that even at the best it looks far smaller than the very much larger, I though far more distant, Jupiter. And besides this, its markings appear rather as indistinct and difficult shad- ings in contrast to the conspicuous and sharply cut markings of the larger planet.
 Yet there is a special pleasure in a prolonged examination of a difficult | object of this kind. If the observer | will devote perhaps an hour or more 1 to this task, trying different powers and patiently waiting for moments of unusual seeing, he will gradually detect many more details than he would have supposed possible from
 a first brief view
 very little watching will show him
 that this world is turning around-the day on Mars being but 37 minutes 1 longer than our own. Spring, summer, autumn and winter also succeed one | another on the Red Planet, just as | they do with us. In the northern 1 hemisphere of the planet the sun is
 now as high in the heavens as it is with us in May. Here the summer is at hand, their longest day-or summer solstice-occurring (according to our earth calendar) during the first week of next May. In the southern hemi- sphere of the planet winter is now advancing. Accordingly the south po- lar cap is now large and is growing 1drRnT w hn "a a bn pole is melting away
 Nearly the whole northern hemi- sphere of the planet is of a yellow or orange shade, while the so-called seas are of a grayish or greenish color It is now practically certain that the former are great desert regions; the l latter are certainly not water-as was at first thought-for in the largest telescopes they show a great mass of l intricate and permanent detail. Many astronomers believe that they are-at least in part-regions of some sort of vegetation. but this is as yet by no means certain. As to the intricate network of lines or bands of the same
 color as the "seas" which cover the planet, these interesting but mysteri- , ous features are far beyond the power
 of smaller telescope.
 Though Mars passed nearest to the
 earth on February g, and although It mas moved put little way along It's orbit since then, the present is un- fortunately not a very favorable op- position. The reason for this will be evident from an examination of fig- ure 2. The sun is no less than l3,- 1 000,000 miles outside the center of the nearly round orbit. so that if the earth passes Mars when this planet is at the most remote part of it's path the two worlds will be 26.00,000 miles further apart than when their ap- proach is the most favorable. In this year Mars passes aphelion-or is fur thest from the sun--on March IS. The ZOdiacal Light
 As new moon occurs on March 5, the last days of February and the first week of March will afford the observ- CTS excellent moonless nights on which to look for this most interesting ob- | ject He should go out of doors as soon after sunset as the western sky has become dark and having found station away from all electric and other artificial lights, he should face directly toward the western point of the horizon. He should go out of doors as soon after sunset the western l sky has become dark, and having found station away from al electric and other artificial lights, he should face | directly toward the western point of | the horizon. He will then see this great, faint pyramid of light, it's base 1 resting on the western horizon and it's apex probably extending almost to the | Pleiades It will probably be consid- | erably fainter than that bright part Of