The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-12-27

Adding to the wonderful winter consteIIa tions the great planet JUpi- ter, the new year presents us with sky which is interesting, indeed. The richest star field in the sky. that in cluding Orion, Sirius and their near neighbors, will be found occupying tic southeastern quarter of the sky, from zenith to horizon. Not less than seven magnitude stars are here, besides q number Of other less bril- liant but none the less remarkable members of the heavenly host
 Very close to the zenith at map time will be seen the pure-white Ca peua, whose light resembles closely that of our own sun. Orion, the Great Hunter, is easily recognized, with his sword belt lying parallel to the hoT4- zon. Extended to the west, the line of the three equally spaced belt stars points toward the constellation of Taurus, the Bull, containing the first magnitude star Aldebaran and also the famous little cluster of the PleI- ades; extended to the east it points almost exactly toward Sirius, the Great Dog Star. which is now well above the hOllzon. Northeast of Si- rius is the Lesser Dog Star. PTocyon, and farther north and higher above the horizon are the heavenly twins. Castor and POlluX.
 F.- into the northeast, just above the -.orizon at map time, is Regulus, the Royal Star, of the group of Leo, the Lion. Jupiter is above ReguIus in the sky and is much the brighter; il wrinkles noticeabIy less than Reg ulus if a all, and can thus be distin- guished from the latter.
 In inc west the other hand we have now lost for some months to come the three first-nagnitude stars. Vega, AItair and Deneb, whiCA make a fine triangle: the Great Square in PegaSus is still in good positions for observation.
 Sirius. the Brightest Star
 Sirius is the very brightest oe all fixed stars; of the common celestial objects only the sun. moon and three of the planets exceed is briIliancy Note also the bs.rItifuI bIue-whitc color of it's light In actual light emitting power. or luminosity, it ia equal to forty-eight of our suns. We also know its distance with good ac- curacy to be eight and one-haIf light years, it's light, traveIing at the rats of 1S6.000 miles per second, takes that many years to reach us. Its actual mass, or the amount of matter which it contains. is a'out thirty four times that of the sun.
 Another interesting fact about Si rius is that il is really a double star a binary, for what we see as one sta: with the n-HeZ eye and even in small telescope, is really a star sys tenn of two components. 1900, 900, GOO miles apart. and revolving abou each other in orbits completed il fOrtv-nine years.
 The two stars are unequal in mas and brightness, the larger of the twt being twice as big and 20, 900 time as bright as the smaller.
 Sirius is the first star which wa observed to have a motion with re spect to the other so-caUed ike stars, a movement discovered by HaI ley in 1718, and which has contribute greatly to a better understanding O zhe side-es1 universe which sur zuunds us.
 A%out 1920 it's movo-9ent was s -N eli known that the astronomer Bes seI concluded from certain variation in it that a companion star existed and this deduction was verified i 1862 by the actual discovery of th double nature of Sirius with larg telescope
 The Sun and Planets.
 The earth Will ne ln perrin heIlOn tn month, 1. e., it Wlil pass through tha point in it's orbit which is nearest tn sun. This will occur on the afteTnoo of the third at 5 o'clock by Easter standard time. It may seem strang that we should be freezing with tn sun nearest to us, but as we hay previously pointed out in this colum the difference between Cur distanC at perihelion and apheLion is yer small for the earth's orbit is yer nearly circular, whereas the impor1 ant factors in producing the seasor are the height reached by the su il the sky each day and the relatiy lengths of day and night; and thes are favorable to the Northern Hen isphere when the earth is in tf aphelion half of it's orbit.
 Two planets are evening stars tn month - Jupiter and Saturn. TT former will be found on the maI the latter ts net yet risen at ma