Omaha daily bee., 1919-11-30

even without smoked glass, as |
have myself seen them, when the
sunlwas low in the sky and its bril-
liancy dimmed by smoke or clouds.
4. This sun spot will have a
crater large enough to engulf the
earth, much as Vesuvius might en-
gulf foot ball. Sun spots are
generally larger than the earth and
smaller ones could hardly be seen i'll
an ordinary telescope. But as the
whole diameter of the sun is only
ITO times as big as the earth's, and
as the crater of Vesuvius is surely
more than ITO times the size of a
foot ball, this wonderful mathemat-
ician has his numbers mixed up in
some way.
S. There will be hurricanes,
lightning, colossal rains, gigantic
lava eruptions, great earthquakes,
floods, fearful cold" as if these had
never happened before. Our prophet
of evil is not the first to predict
such direful things. If he succeeds
he will surely tell US about it after
wards. If he fails, he will keep
quiet. And who puts such predic-
tons on file and consults them after
the event or nonevent? What would
be the use of holding these unful-
filled predictions up to such men?
They would either ignore our ques-
tons or deny their own statements.
Who among us has kept the papers
OF the time before Halley's comet
appeared and compared their dread
full prophesies with their later non
fulfllment? One of these self
styled learned men in France
prophesied that the world would
certainly come to an end the night
we passed through the tail of the
comet. Many poor people believed
this wretch and took all their de-
posted savings out of the banks
and spent them in order to have
the benefit of them while they
might. We may imagine their feel
ings when the world kept on as be-
fore.
PLANETS in Conjunction"
And what are these conjunctions
Of the planets that are to cause all
this trouble? If the reader will
look at the eastern sky on a clear
morning at about two hours before
sunrise on almost any day of this
month, he will see the four biggest
planets in a line. The lowest and
brightest is Venus, which is in re-
atty little smaller than our own
earth and owes its superior bril-
lance merely to its nearness to us.
The next is Mars, easily identf-
, fed by its rudy appearance, which
is very much smaller than the
earth. The third is Saturn, more
than 700 times as bulky. Then
comes frst-ma gnitude star, Reg
illus. And lastly, rivaling Venus in
brightness is Jupiter, 1900 times, as
bulky as our earth. The distance
oi these four planets from us at
this time is about l00,000,000 miles
for Venus, 150,0O0,000 for Mars,
t00000,000 for Jupiter and 100000
GEO miles for Saturn, while the star
Regulus, is many millions of mil
lions of miles away. 1t is like see
ing the street lights of a city from
our window. Two or more lights
may appear to be close together or
nearly i'll the same line with us,
while they i'll reality may be very.
far from one another. This is ex-
actly the case with the planets.
Appear to Pass.
1T the lights removable like those
OF street cars or autos, then it will
happen that two lights will seem to
pass each other. VIII any evil be-
fall Us OH this account? In the
same way why should or could any
thing happen to our earth because
we see two planets apparently in
line? Why do not dreadful things
happen every new and full moon,
when the sun and moon are in line,.
and especially, why do not eclipses
produce cataclysms2 To believe
that conjunctions of planets affect
the welfare of the earth is, to put it
mildly. foolish. Much less can the
enormously more distant stars affect
our character. The stars are not
even intelligent beings, how then
can they force intelligent and free
beings that we are to do anything?
Have we not often proved to others
that we have will of our own and
are, therefore, free? Almighty God
iii His commandments tells us to do
certain things and not to do certain
other things, but He leaves us phys
ically free to obey Him or not, TODD
all kinds of good acts or to commit
all kinds of crimes, just as we
please. OF course, He will settle
accounts with US later. To believe
that stars rule our destinies is silly.
The waning crescent of the moon
will be nearest Jupiter on the 18th,
nearest Saturn on the 18th, Mars on
the 18th. and Venus on the 18th.
On the I'D at 3:27 p. M, the sun
enters Capricorn, is at the winter
solstice and is farthest south. Then
astronomical winter begins. The.
days this month are the shortest of
the year, from nine hours, "a min
utes on the LIST to nine hours, 10
minutes on the 31st. While the day.
of the solstice, the ed, is the short
est of all, when seconds are reck-
oned in, all the days from the 10Th
to the 10Th are nine hours eight
minutes long.
SUN 1919 MOON
RielN, INSET DEC. RiseIso'thl Set