The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-12-30
By pr. c. S. Brainin of the Colum-

By pr. c. S. Brainin of the Colum- bia University Observatory Staff). Our o'clock map shows that the eastern half of.the evening sky pre- sents a particularly glorious combin- ation of heavenly lights On the meridian and nearly overhead is the great white star Capella .and Taurus with Aldebaran and the Pleiades, is just to the south. East of the -Tnert- dian is the constellation of Orion; north of Orion and east of Capella is Gemini, containing, besides Casor and Pollux, also, temporarily, the planet Jupiter.
 The constellation of Orion is easily found by means of its characteristic component, the Belt of three Stars, and we can then use the Belt to To- cate other important stars, Just as the pointers in the large Dipper are used to locate the Pole Star. If we inn agine the line of the three Belt stars extended to the west, we come to AL debaran in Taurus; extended to the east the line points fairly well to a very bright b1ue-white star, Sirius. North of Sirius and little further
 
 Procion, the Lesser Dog.
 Sirius.
 Sirius, the Dog Star, Is the very brightest of all the fixed stars, rival ling in brilliancy the brighter planets themselves. The next brightest star visible from these attitudes, Vega, sets a little before map time, but earlier in the evening both stars are up above the horizon at the same time, Vega in the extreme northwest and Sirius in the southeast. There are several stars which stand between Sirius and Vega in brightness, but these are so far south that they are not visible from the northern part of the continent.
 The distance of Sirius is eight light years, which, expressed in miles, would be the product of 1S6,0OO by by 365 by "A by so by 60. It is the distance which light travels in eight years, and it shows that Sirius is one of the very nearest of the fixed stars to the Earth. Many oth- CT stars which do not appear nearly so bright as Sirius are really intrin- sically much bright,r but their brightness is dimmed for us by their distance.
 Apparent or visible magnitude of a star depends both upon its intrinsic magnitude, or luminosity, and upon Hts distance. For example, Rige, in Orion has a luminosity much greater than Sirius, but is cores pondingly further away. But before the reader gets the idea that Sirius is not so much, after all, let us say that Sirius is no less than forty eight times as powerful a sun as oul own.
 What we call Sirius Is really a bin ary or two-star system; for there i comparatively dark companion which is only half as big as the larg CT body and whose brightness is onl. as one is to forty thousand, compared with Sirius itself The two com ponents revolve about their common center of gravity and the motion o Sirius is quite great enough to b measurable with precise astronomi instruments.
 The spectroscope has confirmed tn observations, if any confirmation were needed. It is from a stud of the orbits that the relative size of the components of this and othe binary stars can be found. The com panion star was actually seen in telescope in 1882; it's presence ha been previously predicted because C the periodic changes in Sirius posi- tions as it traced out its orb through space.
 Saturn.
 Just reaching over the horizon 2 the time of our map Is the [. grea ringed planet Saturn, the secon largest of the entire solar family. Ju piter alone exceeds itnin size. Saturn orbit lies just outside that of Jupite and it was the outermost plano known to the ancients; for the plar