South Bend news-times., 1919-10-26

November ushers into our evening
sky what many consider the very
finest part OF the celestial sphere.
the group OF orion and the sur
rounding consultations The two
great first-magnitude luminaries Of
Orion and the famed Belt will be
found on the map at the eastern
horizon. which means that the
group is just rising over the horizon
at o'clock, the conventional hour
of star map making Further 10
the north. also in the act OF rising.
will be found the Heavenly Twins,
Castor and Pollux, commonly known
by their Latin name OF Gemini.
Preceding them and already fair
~. we'll above the horizon IS the
cleaning white Capella. the She
goat; the group Of Taurus. contain
ing the first-magritude star Aldeba-
ran. and the clusters of the Pleiades
and the Hyades, all Of which are
shown on the map. OF the two the
Pleiades are by far the more COM
pact.
In the zenith is 20 be found the
Great Square in Pegasus made UP
Of three stars Of this group and one
from the neighboring constellation
OF Andromeda. which lies to the
eastward. Cassiopeia, which has
the shape, more or less. of the let
ter w, lies between Pegasus and
the Pole Star. Ursa Major. contain
ing the Big Dipper, will be found
below the Pole star. between it and
the far northern horizon. The
great triangle formed by the beau
tiful Vega Of Lyra, Affair in Aquila
and Denob in Cygnus is well to the
westward now and Will soon dis
appear for a time from our map.
Far in the southwest is Fomalhaut,
the Southern Fish,
The Planets.
All the planets, with the excep-
ton of Uranus and Mercury. are
morning stars this November, and
we miss them greatly from the
evening sky. Uranus is hardly a
subject for naked eye observation,
as it's distance from us is so great
that, in spite Of its size, it appears
only equal to a sixth magnitude
star, and is thus barely visible even
when conditions Of observation are
really good. The elusive Mercury
will give us a chance TO see him this
month. for on the 26th and for
about 10 days before and after this
date the planet may be observed if
atmosphere conditi0ns are favor
able. One has to- look toward the
spot in the heavens where the sun
has just sunk below the horizon.
Then, II the horizon is unobstructed
and free from clouds a bright spot
of light may be seen low down.
Mercury is only a small planet and,
as Il is never very far away from
the sun in the sky. comparatively
very few people have ever seen it
OccultatiOn of Beta Capricorni.
The moon IS the nearest celestial
body 10 the earth and fairly fire.
quently interposes itself between US.
and one OF the more distant celestial
objects, thus temporarily cutting
off our view. When the body thus
hidden from us is the sun we call il
an eclipse of the sun, but when il is
a star or, more rarely, a planet its
technical name is occultation. OF
course, as the heavens are pretty
we'll covered with stars. such oc-
cultations occur continually; but the
eclipsing OF a bright star is not so
frequent. as not many Of them are
so situated as 10 be within the
moons range. The entire list Of oc-
cultations visible from our regions
for 1919 contains only two stars of
the third magnitude and none
brighter. One Of these. Beta Capri
corni, will be immersed at 7:17 p
m. on Nov 27. and the Occultation
will last about an hour.
Two Partial EclipSes in November.
Two partial eclipses. one of the
Ysun and one Of the moon, will be
observable from the greater part of
the United States this month. The
first will be a partial eclipse of the
moon early in the evening Of the
seventh. The moon will enter the
darker shadow the real beginning
OF eclipse, about 6 p. m. eastern
standard time. and emerge entirely
from the shadow at a bout 7.3O. Only
about a fifth Of the moons surface
will be darkened.
The solar eclipse is to be an an
nular or ring eclipse; T. e. where
the eclipse is central It is seen as a
bright ring OF sunlight around the
| dark bulk OF the moon. To under
stand how such an effect can be pro
duced we recall that when the
moon gets between us and the sun
ii cuts of all or part Of the sun s
light from us. The moon casts a
shadow in space and II we stood
within this shadow the sun would
be entirely invisible. Just outside
OF this shadow an observer would
! see only part Of the suns surface
which is a partial eclipse The