The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-09-30
The Starry Skies M October
Nv PROFESSOR pooLIrTLE of


 For many months the student of the heavens has had but little opportunity to spend his early evenings in the ob- servation of our most interesting sister worlds which revolve about our sun Oc- casionally he may have examined the brilliant little Mercury when 1t emerged for short time into the twilight glow, and during the past several weeks Venus has also been steadily but very slowly emerging from the suns rays, but none of the other planets could be studied to advantage except after midnight and during the early morning hours.
 During the evenings of the present month, however, the two most brilliant worlds of all are seen in the evening heavens. When the observer has stud fed the beautiful, silvery Venus until it has sunk below the horizon in the southwest he may turn to the golden Jupiter with it's interesting retnue of moons which will then be climbing the heavens in the northeast. These two planets will nightly come into more ia : vorable positions for observation for many weeks, and to add to the beauty of our autumn evenings we this month see for the first time entering our eve ming heavens the wonderful constellation Taurus, with its striking star figures of the Hyades and Pleiades and this Is but the leader of the brilliant winter train of stars
 THE PLANETS IN OCTOBER
 Mercury attains it's greatest distance west of the sun on October 1; at this time it rises almost at the east point of the horizon about one and one-half hours before sunrise. It is only on the mornings for few days preceding and following this date that the planet \can be seen with the naked eye, though the possessor of small telescope which is provided with setting circles can observe it during the daytime, especially If pre- cautions are taken to screen the object glass from direct sunlight.
 All of the planets revolve about the sun in paths which are not exact circles so that at, some times they are nearcr the sun than at others, but the difference with Mercury is far greater than with any of the other worlds. When this little planet is nearest the sun it is but 2S.- 000,000 of miles distant from that source of intense heat, but when it Is at the most remote part of it's orbit it is no less than 44,000,000 miles away The former position is called Periheion, and- when it is at this point Mercury receives two and one-third %imes as much light and heat as when it is most distant. When 1t is considered that the planet receives on the average seven times as much light and heat as our earth, It Is evident that it's fluctuations of temperature must pe most remarkable. Doubtless this alone would make it quite impossible for living beings such as are found on our earth to exist there, and this unfavorable con- dition- must continue for many long age until our sun has become cooler. Mer- cury passes Periheion on the third of this month at 1 a. m.
 Venus is seen shining far in the south west for two hours after sunset on De- tober l, and this. time is increased to , hours and 30 minutes by the end of the month. The planet has long since passed the point of it's great orbit which is far beyond the sun, and it would emerge from the suns rays far more rapidly did not it's motion also carry it rapidly southward among the stars. By October 31 twill be no less than 2S degrees south of the equator of the sky. point far more southerly than IS ever reached by our sun. Consequently 1t Will be found far south of the west point of the horizon. On October 1 Venus shines with 63 times the brightness of a first magnitude star while by October 3l, on account of it's decreasing distarle from us, it will have become no less than s3 times as bright. It will be found DeauLlIul ODJect III tHe tSieseoPe, ioon'is as the moon when two or three days past the first quarter.
 On the evening of October IS the narrow crescent of the new moon will be seen a little to the right of Venus; both on this and the following even- ing the two objects will form beautiful figure in, the southwestern sky. It will be noticed that the moon is steadily drawing nearer the planet, but unfortunately the two bodies will not be nearest together until hrs. 57 min. D. m. (eastern standard time), when they cannot be seen (except in the telescope) on account of daylight The present approach