The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-11-30

the planets disc at II hours 2S min utes D. m. Meanwhile the first moon will probably not be seen. as 1t Is ln transit. but Vt will emerge about hait an hour later Cat 12 hours minute a. m and the third moon will finally reappear at 3 hours minutes a. m Other phenomena of the satellites may eb seen on the mornings of December iG. IT and A.
 These moons may look to us so small because ahey are so far away; the thlrd moon is larger than the plant Mer- curry and but little inferior to Mars. while the fourth and first moons are quite large worlds tle second moon is of almost exactly the same size as our own satellite. The exact diareters of the four moons in order are 2500O,
 2100. S550 and 296O miles. Jupiter acts
 to these four worlds as kind of sun,
 but whether life is possible on any or
 all of them we do not know.
 THE PLANETS IN DECEM EEK
 Mercury enters the morning sky on
 December ? and reaches it's greatest
 distance west of the sun on December.
 21. F'orR few days before and after
 the latter date. it may be seen rising
 in the southeast somewhat more than
 one hour before sunrise.
 Venus is still rbilliant as morning star, rising about hours 30 minutes I DtlOTe sunrise on DeCeHDeI anu aDoUb 3 hours before sunrise on December 6l'
 Mars is moving eastward in Virgo,
 though it's eastward motion IS now be-
 coming less rapid It will pass half
 way through the constellation during
 the present month. being found north of Spica on December 31. It rises about
 m. on December 1. and about mld-
 night on December 31. It is slowly
 growing brighter with it's decreasing | T ct hriO from
 1.6 to 23 times that of the North Star during the month and its distance dl-
 minishes from 164 to 12I000 of miles.
 Jupiter moves eastward in the ex- treme western borders of Leo until De- cember ,, when it begins to retrograde. 1 rises a few minutes before p. m. on December l and about Il D. m. on De- cember 31.
 saturn is also slowly moving east ward in the constellation Leo. It rises little to the north of the east point of the horizon at Il D. m. on December 1 and 9 D. m on December 31. Both Saturn and Jupiter are in excellent po- sition for observation during the late hours of the night.
 On December 22 a hours 27 minutes D. m. (eastern standard time) the sun will reach it's lower position in the heavens. This will accordingly be our shortest day and at this instant winter will begin.
 THE BELIEF IN HISTOLOGY It will be noticed that all of the bright planets are now in the morning sky and not very far apart. Neptune, also, is in the constellation Gemin, but very little to the west and north of Jupiter while Uranus is in Aquarlus, almost exactly opposite to Mars. A rote has been quite widely circulated in the newspapers predicting great storms (and possibly other calamities) during the present month which are foreto1d by this rather unusual situation of the planets.
 It is astonishing how many people still cling to some measure of belief in ! old astrological ideas. notwithstanding I their complete abandonment during the l last two centuries by all men possess | ing anything like a full knowledge of l astronomy. It is not difficult. however, | to see how a belief in this false science l should have arisen and become wide 1 spread. It was most attractive to man 1 to suppose an exact connection between | the phenomena seen in the heavens and