The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-02-02
at K, in the middle of Cancer, makes he task of finding it less difficult than

at K, in the middle of Cancer, makes the task of finding it less difficult than usual
 On February l Neptune is exactly 43 seconds to the east of the star, and l3 minutes south of it. If therefore on this date the observer will carefu.N bring the star to the center of his tele- scope and then wait E seconds the plan ct will then be in the telescope also and but E minutes south of the center. Nep- tune is now moving slowly westward or retrograding On February it will pass
 the star, and this will be the most con
 venient time to look for the planet. for
 1t will then be exactly 10 minutes south
 of the star. On February 2S the planet
 will be minutes 5 seconds west of the
 star and only 2 minutes south of it, while
 on March 9 Neptune will be at exactly
 the same distance above the celestial
 equator as the star, but it will be min
 utes 53 seconds west of it.. The planet
 will begin to move eastward and will
 again pass the star on June 2. At this
 time however, it will be too near the sur to be observed.
 When found the planet will be seen to have the appearance of a greenish
 star of about the eighth magnitude, but if the air is still it will be noticed, even in small telescope. that its 1uster is different from that of a star. In large telescope 1t would be seen that this most distant planet has but one moon. which is about as large as our own moon and at about the same distance away from it's world, but on which the pull of Neptune is so great that it passes completely aroun1 the planet in five days 21 hours. In other words, this is the length of a month on Ner- tune This rapid motion of the moon tells us clearly that Neptune must be much more massive than our earth When the computation is made, 1t is found that the distant planet is IF times as heavy as ours; as it's volume is oa times as great, the weight of cubic foot of it's mass is but one-fifth as great as with our earth. In short, this
 distant world is but a great ball of va
 DOT. 35.0oo miles through, and Ioubt-
 less it is at very high temperature. Its life as a cool and solid world lies far in the future.
 It may be added that on Neptune the year would be 165 times as long as the year of our earth. The sun would be so distant that it's light would require
 more than four hours to make the jour ney to us, and the light and heat re- ceived from it would be but one-nine
 hundredth part of that poured upon our
 earth. No eye could see that the sun
 had disc: it would look like an in
 tensely bright star, making the circulf
 of the heavens in the course of 6b years.
 ct so intensely bright is our sun that
 even from so great distance away Its
 light would equal that of 66S full
 moons. There would be a very definite
 alteration of day and night, although
 to us. who are accustomed to the earth :
 day the brightness of the daylight
 would seem very dim.
 THE PLANETS IN FEBRU AIRY Mercury enters the evening sky on
 February 23, but as it does not attain
 its geratest distance east of the sun
 until March 21, it will be wholly invis- ible throughout the month
 Jupiter is moving slowly westward