The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-09-01

1 The two fainter planets, Uranus and Neptune, can usually only be found with the help of good star atlas and an ephemeris giving their positions from day to day. This month. however, the for nier plant passes so very close to the star at l. (F'igure 9 that the observer with little care can readily find 1t with small telescope, and on a very clear night he may even be able to see it with the naked eye. He will experience grat pleasure in detecting for the first ltime this great world, which only ap- pears so faint because it is so very far away from us. Having clearly seen it and noted the dull luster and greenish color, he may be able to follow it for many months during it's slow motion among the stars.
 The searcher should first make sure that he has correctly located the fifth magnitude star at l.; this may readily be done by carefully noting it's position with reference to the stars M, N, R, and $. Uranus during this month is very slowly retrograding or moving westward among the stars, and it always remains very near the star at l.. On September H Is ? minutes seconds east of this star and minutes above it; that Is, the two objects are than separated by about the apparent diameter of the full moon On September Is Uranus will be found Is minutes due south of the star: they will thus form close pair in any tele- scope, and this is the best evening on which to very easily and surely find the planet. The steady motion westward and southward will continue until by the end of the month Uranus will be 1 minute 3S seconds west of the stand 16 minutes be- low 1t, thus again separated from it by about the apparent diameter of the full moon.
 In the telescope Uranus will appear az duil, ereenish star of the sixth magnitude. It has very interesting system of four little moons revolving about it, and obscure markings are some times seen Upon it's surface, but these are quite beyond the power of any but the largest telescopes It is great vaporous world, whose diameter is about four times az great as that of our solid earth, end like the other large planets, Jupiter and Saturn. it turns on it's axis more quickly than our earth does, The time of it's rotation being about 20 hours Uranus is q world of the future; many ages must pass before it has become cool and solid as our earth has done.
 VENUS AND SATURN
 The reader who has looked at the heav- ems in tie carly morning before~sunrise II morning star Venus, which now shines in the northeast with more than 50 times the brightness of first magnitude star. A little below Venus he has perhaps scen the planet Saturn, but as this planet IS now but ittlc brighter than star of the first magnitude, 1t Is probable that unless he especially searched for it, it has es. capped niir in the light of the dawn. Venus is now rapidly drawing eastward in Leo alory the path shown in Figure 8. In the course of it's motion it will overtake and pass Saturn, the two planets at the time cf their closest approach De ing so near together that they will look almost like q single object to the naked eye.
 Unfortunately, the least distance vii, be reached CT the evening of September by the time of the United States, but on the next morning the observer vii, see the two objects still very close TO together in h,s se!escops A. tn. iin,s Venus will rise about hour 25 minutes before the sun and the best view vii; doubtless be obtained about 40 minues before sunrise. Venus can, indeed, be seen at any time of the day, but tha fainter planet is rendered invisible bs the daylight illumination of the sky. So rapidly does Venus move eastward that by sunrise on September the observer win see the two planets seperated by distance nearly equal to the lprareat distance across the full moon. whereas seven hours earlier they were but ono sixth as far apaTE They will still, how ever, appear qFte close together in