The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-25

, borders of the faint constellation Cancer l Late on the night of March the moor
 will be seen drawing quite close to tn,
 planet Saturn, and it will again pass
 the planet at about an hour before noor | on March 31 Many observers in the southern hemisphere of the earth vii
 see the planet hidden by the moon or
 these dates. To observers in northern attitudes, however, the two bright ob.
 jects so near together will merely form an interesting figure in the sky.
 1 On March 20, at Il hours S8 minutes
 D. m (eastern standard time), the cen I ter of the sun will cross the equator ir 1 its motion from the south to the north
 and at this instant spring will begin. THE ZODIACAL LIGHT 1 It is at this time of the year that the strange, faint illumination of the western sky known as the zodiacal light Is best | observed. It is very probably that the
 great majority of persons, even among those who are interested in astronomy, have never had the pleasure of tracing out this little known object Many inn agine it to be so difficult that it requires an unusual eyesight or very special
 methods for observing it; when it is first pointed out to such persons and clearly
 seen by them their first expression is al-
 iilOSl dlWdNS one OI SurpTlS6 that they
 had never seen it before.
 At this time of the year the zodiacal light is seen as faint, wedge-shaped H. illumination in the western heavens. just after the twilight has fully disappeared. The center of the base of the wedge rests upon the horizon few degrees north of the west point, its axis as seen from our latitudes not extending upward but inclining toward the south in the di- rection of the constellation of the Bull. The center line of the triangle of light always lies very nearly along the ecliptic A V B, Fig l. It is because the seasonal change of the heavens brings this line so much more directly upward from the horizon during the month of March that the zodiacal light is best seen at this time.
 To see this faint pyramid clearly the observer must occupy a station well re- moved from all sources of artificial light and the moon must also be below the horizon, so that the general background of the sky is as dark as possible. The second or third weeks of the present month will be especially favorable for the observation, especially the third week, when the moon changes from last quarter to new.
 The observer will then clearly see the faint pyramid of light; it will be seen to be brightest nearest the sun and along it's axis, and to fade away toward it's edges. Its brightest portions may be nearly or quite as bright as the average area of the Milky Way. It may perhaps be traced at it's apex up to, or even be- yond. the Pleiades. At first the observer can best locate it by turning his eye to the right and left of the ecliptic and not ing how much darker the sky appears in these adjacent regions. It may also be more clearly seen by what is called "Averted Vision," the eye not being di- rected exactly toward the object itself, but a little to one side of it. But when it's position has been clearly ascertained by these methods it will be bare more di- rect scrutiny
 It is practically certain that this illu- imitation is caused by a great, flattened cloud of little particles which surround the sun and extend outward in all direc-