The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-06-01
BY DR. c. S. BRAININ. Of the Columbia University Observa-

Of the Columbia University Observa-
 tory Staff.
 The June evening sky is rich in planets, for three of these, besides the almost invisible Neptune, are evening stars this month. Slightly west of the meridian and close to the bright star Spica in Virgo. will be found the ruddy planet Mars, about which so much astronomical TO- nance is constantly woven. Further to the westward, about half way to the horizon is an almost straight line of three stars; the highest is the planet Saturn, the next is really a star. Regulus, and the lowest is Jupiter, the largest of all the plan cts. Venus is still morning star, but will change next month and make its debut as governing star in July. although it wifi not find a place on the 9 o'clock, map for many months.
 The Sun.
 The apparent movement of the sun along the ecliptic, which is due to the real movement of the earth along it's orbit, will bring the former to the most northerly point in the heavens which it can occupy, called the summer solstice. It is the date which the astronomer sets for the beginning of summer, and this year the event will happen on June 21, at about 12:40 p. m. On this date we will have the longest daylight period and the shortest night, and from then on the nights will grow at the expense of the days. At the time of the autumna1 equinox they will be equal, and thereafter the night will be the longer period until the vernal equinox is reached. The SnD gets further north of the equator than 23 1-2 degrees, so that no point on the earth's sur face which has a latitude of more than 23 1-2 north can ever have the sun directly overhead in the zenith. There is thus a belt on both sides of the equator, extending 23 1-2 de- grees north and south, in which lie all the places that can have the sun in their zeniths, and this belt is call ed the Torrid Zone. The boundar- ies of the zone are called the Trop- ics, that of Cancer to the north and that of Capricorn in the south. The word "tropic' comes from the Greek word meaning to turn. In the an cient days when these phenomena were first studied, the summer sol stice point lay in the constellation of Cancer. the Crab, but the preces- sion of the equinoxes has changed
 
 | spect to the ecliptic circles so that | this point has gradually moved into Gemini.
 The Seasons.
 Another very important fact with l regard to the sun is that just at this 1 time, when we are having our warm | weather, the earth is farther from l the sun than at any other time. The orbit of the earth is elliptical, so that 1 NJ | does vary; but it is so very nearly a circle that the variation is very small and not by any means great enough | to cause the variation between sum- mer and winter. The real cause of 1 the seasons is, of course, the fact | that during the summer months the l sun is higher in the sky, thus giving i us a more intense heat while it is up and being above the horizon a greater ] part of the day than it is below, ii l warns us for a longer period each 1 day. Any part of the earth is warmed in the daytime and cools of by radiation at night Therefore when we have summer the southern hemisphere has winter, and vice l versa
 | Size of the Sun.
 1 The sun is one of the stars; only 1 it happens to be our particular star | and is so close to us as to dwarf al l the other stars of the universe. As II a matter of fact the sun is not one | of the largest of the stars, nor yet | is it one of the smallest; it seems | to be about average in size But l compared to the earth and other | planets it is veritable giant The | earth's diametetr is about 1900 mile; and that of the sun is over 43O. 1000 which makes the latter equal in vol ume to 100000 earths- In actua | amount of material the sun has more | than 3Oo,o0O times as much as the | earth. In the sky the sun does no look quite so big, but that is because it's distance from us is about 93,000, 900 miles,
 l The Suns Heat.
 The sun is at an enormously higl