The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1922-12-31
The Heavens in January


The month of January brings to US
a very unusual and interesting event,
an occultation OF the planet Venus. As
the moon, nearly half a degree in
diameter, moves across the sky, II
always covers a portion of the sky
and eonceals the objects which lie
behind it. We say that these objects
are occulted by the moon. occasion
ally the sun is thus cecuited, but III
this special case we call it an ecilpse.
The moons path does not depart lar
from that of the sun tthe ecllptie1,
so that only objects in this part o.
the sky can be occulted. since the
planets lie in this part OF the SKY
they may be occulted as well as stars.
AS Venus is, after the sun and moon,
the brightest object in the sky. It's oc-
eultation is more easily observed
than that of any other object
Like eclipses, OSCILLATIONS are Wis
ible from some places while invis~
tble from others OCCUPATIONS OF We
nus are quite rare events. The last
occultation of Venus. which could be
seen from Washington. p. C., seems
to have been that of February ",
1884. At that time the occultation oe-
and lasted but six minutes. The next
nearest occurred April is, 1855, be-
ginning S.3S D. m. and lasting "a
minutes. Saturn was occultedS August
25. 1916. Jupiter in 1889 and Mars in
1910.
In figure two lines have been
drawn on the map to show the places
at which the occultaticn will begin
at the time stated and other lines
,t.~ tolo the OCrlil-
tation ends at stated times. One
could select the line of each set (be-
ginning and ending) passing closest
to his position to get the approximate
time at his station. These times
would be less than five minutes in
error. Or one could get the times
more closely by estimating. For in
stance. il the observer is at Pitts
burg, which lies five-sixth of the way
from the line marked SEQ to the
one marked $50. tho time of begin
ming will be five-sixths way between
these times, or about 528. 1t is quar-
ter way between the ending lines
marked $40 and $40, hence the time
OF ending Is quarter way between
these times. or about 6:12 To give
the eastern standard time used there
we midst add an hour. making the
times gas and 1914 Q. m. The sun
rises there at f:4l. At Philadelphia
the occuitation begins at 6:39 and
ends at 1875. The sun rises there at
T:21 o'clock.
At the time of the occultation the
moon and Venus will be in the south
eastern sky. As shown In figure two,
both the moon and Venus are in the
crescent phase. The bright part is
toward the sun. as always--that is,
toward the east.
In figure two, east and west for
these cfescents is opposite to that for
the map, so that the crescefts will
be as they appear in the sky. Venus
and tho moon are not drawn to the
same scale. The moon then appears
to be approximately so times as large
as Venus. Although Venus is brill
liant to the naked eye, its phase can
be seen only with telescope. The
age of the moon at the time is 36.5
days. or IS days from the next new
s6oon. Both the moon and Venus are
flowing eastward among the stars.
But the moon about Is times as fast
Is Venus. The moon overtakes Venus
and Venus disappears at the eastern
eide Of the moon and reappears at
the Western eide. The place on the