Republican farmer., 1918-10-04

By Dr. c. s. Brainin of the Colum- lbia University Observatory Staff.)
 The two great astronomic events of the past Summer, the total eclipse of the Sun, visible in the United States, and the appearance of the "new" star in the constellation of Aquilla, have created a renewed and widespread in- terest in astronomic phenomena and astronomic theories, which cannot fail to produce good results. Those of the laity whose curiosity has been stimulated strongly enough to follow further in astrononic paths will find themselves richly repaid by the won der and the vastness of the fields into which they are led; and such an in terest evinced by the people at large is bound to have a beneficial reflec- tion on the science itself.
 The October sky is as fine field of stars as is presented at any time and contains a good many points of particular interest. The western half of the heavens, at the map time, with it's great stars, Lyra. enDeb and All tair, the new star Nova Aquilae, and the fine little group of Corona Bo- realis we have discussed in detail in previous months, and we shall there fore limit ourselves to the eastern half of the sky.
 Here is found the group of constel- lations named after the mythological characters of the Medusa's story. We have here Perseus, the hero, and his airplane horse, Pegasus and between them the chained heroine, Androme- da. The lady's parents are also pres ent, Cepheus, the King, and Cassio- peia, Andromeda's mother, whose in discreet tongue brought the visits of the sea monster, Cetus-further to the south-which dcvoured one beautiful maid at every visit The head of the monster Medusa, which turned Cetus 1 into stone, is represented by the star l AlgoI, together with the less brilliant stars surrounding it.
 | It Is interesting to note that Cetus | is separated from the other constel-
 lations of this mythological group by the Fishes, Pisces. which are not in any way connected with the story.
 Pisces is one of the cancellations of the Zodiac, and it's identity goes back further than the entrance of the
 Greek mythology into the nomencla- LOA . OA bAC SI1ASB IL HoS 4OSSlhSu from the Bebylonians, who were the Lreal founders of astronomy. The Greeks could not change their ar rangement of the 0odiacal groups,
 which in the old days were looked
 upon with particular reverence.
 | Algol the Demon.
 l The group of Perseus contains two
 stars of note. Alpha Persei, the
 brightest of the, constellation, is in i the center of a small cluster which
 makes a fine appearance in a tele-
 scope. But the real marvel is the selond brightest, Algol. This is a
 variable star, which in astronomy means that it undergoes changes in
 brightness and does not refer to change in position. And Algol is a remarkable variable, because of the rapidity and extent of it's varia-
 lions. Normally, Algol is of approx imately the second magnitude, but periodically it's brightness drops to
 the 3:5 magnitude, which means that 1 it loses no less than five-sixths of it's
 light. This great change occurs
 within the short space of four and
 one-half hours and it takes the star about three and one-half hours to re- | gain it's normal brilliancy. The mini mum brightness lasts only twenty
 minutes. The phenomenon takes
 place every two days and twenty hours, and is easily observed by com pairing it's brightness with the neigh boring stars.
 i It is certain that the cause of the variation of Algol and the similar va riables is a temporary eclipse by a
 dark companion. Algol and the dark Abody form . system, each body re-