South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1920-12-08

The last month az the calendar
wear brings eItn it &, orr 9 O'Clock
man what is no doubt the very nm
est portion of the entire Sly for the
ua kcd-eye astronomer. Ae refer 10
.ho region of the heavens embr2c-
ing the consultations Of orion
Taurus and Gemini and the Two
-9rnosl- Uog groups. CAMS Mayor
and CAMS Minor. They occupy tA'
eastern part of the heavens az pres
Ont and number among thcir atlrac
tons no less than eight stars OF inc
first magnitude.
Three mere Grst-maeuitude s,ars
vega. Affair and Denen, are over
fhe western horizon preparing Co
set and i'm the far southwest can Or
ocu F'oma}haul another oI inc
erst-r1aguitude stars the brigntesJ
ef-lr II the constellation ri the
southern Fish. So thai, In spite OF
the fact that we are unable 20 place
rDon the monthly map any OF inc
rlanets, with the single exception OF
.Ee nearly invisible Neptune. the sky
II, extremely rich iu brilliant lumin-
aries of great interest.
orion. the Great Hmtcr.
Orion Is without doubt enc 81
the grandcst consultations I'm the
entire heavens; il contains the two
arst-masuitude stars, RIgel ana
3etclgeuze. and four scc0nd-mag-
uitudc stars. three OF the latter
making up the famous Belt OF or
ion. The Belt is a condemnation or
stars as well known To modern and
and ancieuts as the Great DipLer
or the Plciades.
AS can be seen by "a glance at the
man the group &c orion forms q
rough duadrilateral. with the red
dish Eelclgeuze toward the north
east and the ane white Rigel jon the
opposite corner. The northwestern
corner is marked by secOud-Uag
uitude star called BelatriN. slightly
VcIowish iu color. I'm the fourth
Corne- is only "a third magnitude
star. called Saiph. Just about n the
central area of this Quadrilatecal Is
The Belt. easily recognized, as 4 is
marked By three stars OF the sec
ond magnitude strikingly placed I'm
that they are practically on a
straight line, with the middle one
half wav between the outer two Ina
fact. the entire constellation, when
once noted. is not To DE forgotten OF
account Of its formation and bril-
15ncy.
Hanging from the Belt Of the
hunter IS The jcweled scabbard, d
limo of stars cXtcndius short way
from the Belt I'm q sOutheNy direc-
ton within this group is the IA
nous orion Nebula. visible without
90 telescope under the very best az
nospheriC conditions as "a small
patch OF light or as "a fuzzy star
but expanding in even small tele-
scope into III irrcgulariy- in
candesccut cloud. occupying q fair
large area of the heavens and cor
tanning many stars. It is the VcE
sucSt ncbula visible with the small
.r telescopes and lis considered one
of the most beautiful telescope oh
iects i'm the sky. Even n three-lnci
telescope viii show if up nicely.
Recently there have been discOv
cred IN this uebu11 movements OF
it's several different parts, AID, If II
IS true a. astronCma rs believe, that
the irregular ucbulas are the most
primitive FORM of matter and that
the spiral u'ebul5s are "A iurthel
-tcD in the deVe1oDmc then
some remote future date the Orion
ucbrla may develop into an inn
uense spiral visible TO the iuhabi
tants. IL there are any. Of the earth
Furthermore. according 10 one Yer,
popular theory OF the formation 81
the solar system. it was DEVELOPED
from q spiral ucbjJa of the appro
PIRATE size, very small indeed com
pared with the spir9ls at prcSen
known 10 astronomers. If II is al
misgible 20 think that other nebula
Of the spiral kind ere going TO he
velop into central suns with al