The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-10-05

Two of the four ecipseS scheduled for 1921 occur this month. There was a total eclipse of the sun on the 1st, invisible here, and there will be partial eclipse of the moon on the 18th, visible in New England.
 A total eclipse of the sun is always an important event in astronomical
 circles. Especially is this true at the present time when astronomers are waiting patiently for a chance to yer fly the bending rays of light from
 distant stars passing near the sun, observed in connection with the total solar eclipse of May 29. 1919, and
 hailed as a verication of the Fin tein relativity theory. It is, there fore unfortunate that on the present occasion the shadow of the moon will
 cross the southern Pacific, the only land in the path of totality being the South Shetland Islands. As eXpedi- tions to this region are practically out of the question, it will not be possible to repeat the experiments
 sary to wait until September 20. 1922, for further tests of the Einstein hy- pothesis as ar as the bending of light rays is concerned.
 Partial Eclipse Visible
 As a partial eclipse, however. the
 present one will be visible over the southern part of South America as, | far north as latitude 10 degrees, but
 observations of the partial phase all though interesting are not of much
 
 The full moon of the 16th, which is to suffer partial eclipse, is the so- called hunters moon. The eclipse ! will begin before moonriSe in New
 England, so that the first part oft his | int eresting event will not be visibles here. The time schedule will be as
 follows: Moon enters penEmbra.- | 3:01 D. m.; enters shadow. 14 D. n.;
 moon leaves shadow 734 p. m.; | leaves penumbra. SAG D. m. At the
 riddle of the eclipse 93.S per cent. of the moons diameter will be ob- scured. As the moon will not rise here until about p. m., the eclipse will be nearly half over before ob-
 servation is possible. and then under rather unfavorable circumstances
 with the moon low in the east.
 The sun will move. steadily east
 ward and southward during the month, passing from Virgo into
 Libra. As a result of its southward motion the length of the day will de- crease by so minutes in our iatiture. Full Moon October 16
 The moon will be in first quarter
 on the Sth at SIP p. m. Full on the 1 l 9th at D. m., in last quarter on the l 23d at 11:32 p. m., and new again
 on the Soth at 6:So D. m. It will be i in apogee on the 11th and in perigee
 on the 27th, will run low on the 7th ] and high on the 21St, crossing the ] equator on the 14th and 27th. In it's 1 journey around the zodiac it will pass
 the planets in :he ollowing order: Mer- | cury on the Sd Uranus on the 13th,
 Neptune on the 25th, Mars oH the i 27th, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus on
 the 2Sth and Mercury again on the | 30th.
 Professor w H. Pickering, in l charge of the Harvard station at Ja- i maica, claims to have discovered cer- i tain changes in the appearance of the l surface of the moon which indicate, i he thinks, the existence of life there. | Tn, h dPScrrhaS markings, interpreted as snow. shift | ing and revolving within some of the
 lunar craters. There are also chang ing dark areas, interpreted as lunar vegetation, which develop and diSap- pear in periods ranging from few 1 days to two weeks. The lunar "vege- tation" thus compares in quickness of development with our mushrooms and toadstools. However, the vast major ity of astronomers do not observe
 such changes on the moon and there fore deny the existence of vegetable life there-
 In the article for July attention
 was called to the remarkable success l obtained at Mt Wilson in determin- ing the actual diameters of stars,
 using an interferometer arrangement
 attached to the 100-inch telescope. At
 that time only two stars had been
 measured, BeteIgeuse with a diameter
 of 240 million miles, which figure has
 been reduced to 21S million by addi-
 tional measurements, and Arcturus, With a diameter or nineteen 1n1lllOn
 miles, increased by more careful measurement to twenty-one million. Distance Not Known
 Recent measurements have shown that the bright red star Antares in
 Scorpio is larger than Betelgeuse. The : angular diameter of Antares comes out .04 seconds. The distance to this star is not very accurately known, but us- ing the best values available, the lin7 ear diameter oS somewhere between 2So million miles and 430 million. $ Thus Antares is without question the largest star yet measured
 Mercury will be in greatest eastern elonga ton on the 7th, at which time l it may be seen low in the southwest
 after sunset, setting nearly hour . after the sun. It will be in the con- stellation Libra, southeast of the
 bright star Spica in Virgo. The planet : however, will be nearly three times as
 bright as the star. On the 31St Mer-
 cury will pass through inferior con-