The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-10-02
THE STARRY SKIES IN OCTOBER
By PROFESSOR BARTON

By PROFESSOR BARTON
 '(Of the University of Penusylvania.)
 On the first day of the month there Is total eclipse of the sun. The eclipse is visible only in the south ern parts of South America and on ocean areas. The total eclipse begins october 2l, 5:27 a. m., Eastern stand ard time, and the eclipse Is last seen as total eclipse at 9.44 a. m. The eclipse is visible as a total eclipse over a strip of ocean about ITO miles wide. This strip Hes just south of Sape Horn and extends southward 10 the south pole. Only few uhnhabitcd islands lie in it. so that no scientific Observations of the eclipse will be made. The eclipse lasts al most minute and 52 seconds as 8 total eclipse
 Of much greater interest to us is the total eclipse of the moon, which occurs two weeks later on She even ing of October 16 On this evening the moon passes through the shadow or the earth and is almost but not quite totally eelipsed. About a six teenth of the moons diameter will not lie within the shadow The con- ditions Of the eclipse are shown in figure ,. The moon moV ua east ward tirR comes Gto ,pNt1tt with the earth's shadow 'a1 position 1, the contact occut utttus on tht north eastern part of tG% .no5n. This con tact occurs at 4,i4 eastern time. The middle of the eclipse occurs In posi- ton at 5.54. Th's .s the maximum eclipse. A little of tho soutnern DOT ton of the moon "a still outside of the shadow. The last centact with the shadow occurs at position at 9;34 The western side of the moon IS the last to emerge from the shadow.
 The entire moon will be distinctly visible even when deeply immersed Tn the shadow. The earths atmos- phere bends considerable portion of sunlight Into what would otherwise be black shadow. This light, which IS of reddish tinge, Eliminates the moon.
 The beginning of the eclipse will not be visible in the United States. as the moon has not risen when the eclipse begins. The time of moon- rise varies with the position of the observer and the kind of time he uses. In the position of Philadelphia tffve hours west longitude 40 degrees north latitude) the moon rises at 5:17 D. m. The time at other places will not differ greatly from this. Only those on the eastern coast will see the maximum eclipse. Those farther west using Central time will find that the moon has risen from the middle of the eclipse and those still further west will see no eclipse at all, as the moon will not have risen until the eclipse is over. This will be true west of Denver There will be no eclipse of the moon next year.
 The Planets
 There no plapafa vi ef tc the naked eye In the early evening. Some of the planets may be seen under unfavorable conditions before sunrise in the east, On October 25 Venus passes Jupiter. At this time the two brilliant planets will be quite close together. Saturn is near by and Mars also is near. These four plan cts, all of the planets visible to the naked eye, except Mercury, which is seldom visible. are then In the same constellation Virgo. Unfortu- nately this interesting and unusual clustering of tho planets Is visible only in the morning twilight. The positions of the planets are shown in Figure g.
 Mercury may be, seen very low in the southwest in the early evening twilight for a few evenings about October 2.
 Uranus
 Until comparatively recent times the above mentioned five planets were the only ones known. They are the only ones plainly visible to the naked eye. These with the sun and moon made up seven moving bodies. One day of the week was dedicated to each, Sunday for the sun. Saturday for Saturn. etc. Seven then became sacred number rep rcsenting completeness It thus be- came a fixed idea that there were no more planets, and even after the invention of the telescope had made visible great numbers of stars which were not visible before few If any suggested that there might be plan cts which had not yet been seen
 On March 13, l7S1. Herschel while examining celestial objects with a seven-inch reflecting telescope, noted something peculiar about one of the stars which he saw. It looked somc- what different to him from the or dinary stars. It looked n little lar ger and less brilliant than a star He turned a higher magnifying pow CT on 1t and watched it. After two days he saw that it had moved | little. He announced that he had d' covered a comet. Other astrono- nners received the information and they, too, noted the changes in the position of the object. These obser- l