South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-12-28
THE HEA VEINS IN JANUARY
BY DR.. c. S. BRAININ
OF Columbia University Observatory Staff.

neighbors, viii be found occupying
the southeastern quarter of the sky.
from zenith TO horizon. Not less
than seven first magnitude stars are
here. besides a number OF other less
brilliant but none the less remark
able members of the heavenly host.
Very close TO the zenith at map
time will be seen the pure-white Ca
pella. whose light resembles closely
that OF our own sun. orion, the
great hunter. is easily recognized.
with his sword belt lying parallel To
the horizon. Extended to the west.
the line of the three equally spaced
belt stars points toward the conStel-
lation OF Taurus. the bull. contain
ing the first magnitude star AldebaT-
an and also the famous little cluster
OF the Pleiades; extended 20 the east
II points almost exactly toward ST.
rius, the great dog star which is now
we'll above the horizon. Northeast
of Sirius is the lesser dog star. Pro
cyon. and farther north and higher.
above the horizon are the heavenl!
twins. Castor and Pollux
Tar into the northwest. just above
the horizon at map time. is ReguluS,
the royal star, of the group or Leo.
the lion. Jupiter is above Regulus
I'm the sky and is much the brighter;
il wrinkles noticeably less than Reg
illus. if at ALL and can thus be dis
tinguished from the latter In the
west, on the other hand, we have
g. N
the three first-magnitude stars, Vega,
Affair and Deneb, which make fine
triangle; the great square in Pega-
sus is still in good position for OBJ
seIvation.
Sirius. the Brightest Star.
Sirius is the very brightest OF all
fixed stars; of the common celestial
objects only the sun, moon and three
OF the planets exceed its brilliancy.
Note also the beautiful blue-white
color OF it's light. In actual light
emitting power. or luminosity, il is
equal 10 forty eight of our suns. We
also know It's distance with good ac-
curacy to be eight and One-half light
years: its light. travelling at the rate
Of 1S6. 900 miles per second. takes
that many years to reach Us. Its ac-
tual mass, or the amount of matter
which it contains. is about thirty
four times that OF the sun.
Another interesting fact about ST
RUS is that il is really a double star
a binary, for what we see as one star
with the naked eye and even in a
small telescope. is really a star sys-
tenn of two components. 1900, 600, 600
miles apart, and revolving about
each other in orbits completed in
forty-nine years. The two stars are
unequal in mass and brightness, the
larger of the two being twice as big
and 10000 times as bright as the
smaller.
Sirius is the first star which was
observed TO have a motion with re-
spect to the other so-called fixed
stars. a movement discovered by
HALEY in IT'S. and which has CON
tributed greatly 10 a better under
standing Of the sidereal universe
which surrounds US. About 1920 its
movement was so well known that
the Astronomer BesseI concluded
from certain variations in it that a
companion star existed. and this de-
duction was verified in 1862 by the
actual discovery Of the double ma
ture OF Sirius with a large telescope.
The sun and Planets.
The earth will be in perihelion
this month, i e., it will pass through
! that point in It's orbit which is near
/ est the sun. This Will occur on the
afternoon OF the third at 3 o'clock
! by Eastern standard time 1t may
| seem strange that we should be
freezing with the sun nearest to us,
/ but as We have previously pointed
out in this column, the difference be-
! tween our distance az perihelion and
| apheliOn is very small, for the earth S
| orbit is very nearly circular, whereas
/ the important factors in producing
I the seasons are the height reached
! by the sun in the sky each day and
night: and these are favorable 10 the
northern hemisphere when the earth
/ is in the aphelion half Of its orbit
Two planets are evening stars this
| month-Jupiter and Saturn. The
/ former will be found on the map:
! the latter is not yet risen at map time
I in the earlier days of the month. but
/ viii cross the horizon somewhat later
\ and so must be looked for AZ a later
} hour Venus is a morning star and
will continue such the entire first six
months Of the year. Mars ends its
! career as morning star this month
and will appear in the evening the
rest OF the year. Neptune. the fur
\ thest planet from the sun is up in the
I evening. but is So far away that il
/ appears as n star just about on the
I limit of visibility.
Astronomy I'm 1919
The last year has not been a spec
! tacular wear for the amateur astron-
| omer. There was a total eclipse Of
/ the sun, but il was invisible from
this country and no large comets OF
brilliant noyae appeared. To th5
| professional astronomer II has. how
| ever. been 2 year OF the greatest
importance. Many excellent re-
/ searches have been finished and pub
/ Hshed. among others a series 10y "
Stanley OF Mt. Wilson. in which the
distances of many Of the farthes'
! objects of the universe have beer