The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-07-23

ing map this month, Mars and Uranus. That fiery star4 Mars, named after the\god of war, will be found in the southwestern sky and Is easily recognized, for it is by far the most brilliant object in that he found white Slpica, main glory of the constellation Virgo. Uranus is very close to the eastern horizon and too dim an object for observation without the aid of a. powerful tele- scope. In addition to these, which appear on the map, there is one other evening star, Saturn, which sets somewhat too early to find a place on the map, but which can be easily observed over the western horizon after the sun has set
 Venus and Jupiter are both really too close to the sun for observation this month but the Queen of Beauty, Venus, Is constantly improving her position and soon will be the most brilliant object in the evening sky. Jupiter is slowly changing from an evening star to a morning star, and will not appear on our maps for some months. Mercury is a morn ing star on and for about a week be- fore and after the 17th and can be observed by early risers if the atmos-
 
 horizon are favorable.
 The Cancellations.
 Clear of the horizon now we have in the eastern sky the great con- stellation of Pegasus, the Flying Horse. It's three most brilliant stars and the brightest of the stars be- longing to the group Andromeda, 8 little farther to the northeast, form a square well known as the Great fw the stars is not in that group at all. The brightest of the stars of the Flying horse, called Alpha Pegasi or Markab, formerly was of great inn portance to mariners, for it was used in determining the longitude of the ship by a method now antiquated. depending on the motion of the moon among the fixed stars. In astrology Markab denoted death from wounds or fire. The spectroscope has shown that 1t is really made up of two sep arate stars, which appear as one to the naked eye because of the stars tremendous distance.
 The neighborinE group of Andro- meda is chiefly interesting because it contains the Great Nebula, a giant spiral nebu1a which, under very good conditions of observation, is visible to the naked eye as a hay patch. Of course, no unaided eye can see the spiral structure of the nebula. A good-sized telescope is needed. The photographs of the nebula obtained with the larger instruments are of unsurpassabIe beauty.
 The August Meteors.
 August brings with it one of the grandest of the meteoric showers of the year, the shower of the Perseids. They are most plentiful in the morn ing hours. but many will be seen throughout the night They come about the middle of the month and last approximately a week. The name Perseids Is given to them because their radiant, or that point in the sky from which they all seem to come, Is In the constellation Perseus Naturally, there is no real physica connection between them and any o1 the stars of that group.
 Much misconception exists con- corning these meteors, and this prob ably can be traced directly back to their popular name of shooting stars" In reality they are not stare at all After the rapid passage o1 one of these across the sky not 6 single star will be found to be miss ing They are simply tiny particle. of matter, for the greatest part no bigger than a pea, which come into contact with the earth's atmosphere Whatever their origin may hay, been, they had been passins through space, following the all compelling law of gravitation, jus any larger body would do Moving with great speed, becaus' of the absence of the retarding fore, of friction out in empty space, the. suddenly fall Into the dense atmos phere of the earth, and the hea generated by this sudden meetin; raises the air along the meteor's patl to a white heat and causes the de struction of the meteoric particle.
 Sometimes however, one of thes wanderers of space is so large tha