Evening star., 1926-12-05
THE STARRY SKIES IN DECEMBER


Mars is a conspicuous object in the
SKY In the south. The increase in its
distance from the earth, however, pro.
duceS a rapid decrease in it's bright
ness. On December / it is $4,000, 600
miles away. On December 81 it is
E,60o,0o0 miles away and at the first
or the month is just a trifie brighter
than Sirius, the brightest of the fixed
stars, which is seen on the southeast
ern horizon at "A in Figure l. At the
end of The month Mars is a whole
magnitude fainter, and at Philadel-
phla sets at 4:24 am, December /,
and at 2i6 am. Dec, mber 81 The
times are nearly the same elsewhere
IN The United States. Jupiter, which
Is sun brighter than Mars, is south
at 4."' p M. and sets az 1902 pm, and
is very conspicuous in the early eve
hinE Mercury may BE- seen as a
mnrnin- star for a few days about
Dertn.o"r IA 1t rises at 5:25 am.
'er/nber IA, Venus and Saturn are
TO close to the sun for satisfactory
observation. Uranus is in the position
marked on Figure /. 1t is too faint
TO S"a with the naked eye.
Those with small telescopes may be
interested in looking for the planet
Neptune. 1t will be easy to locate this
hi'IitH. HlS Dldnet was unknown
until 1916 and Is the outermost planet
known. The planet has been moving
SLOWLY eastward. On November 80 it
changed the direction of it's motion so
tnat II Is now moving slowly west
ward. 1t is now quite close to Regu-
luS, the brightest star in the constel-
latIon Leo. This constellation is not
shown on Figure I. 1t rises about IL
pm 1t is well known by the sickle
IN Leo. ReguluS being the star at the
end Of the handle. The positions of
the stars brighter than the ninth mag
nltude in the vicinity are marked on
Figure =. The magnitudes of those of
magnitude so or brighter are marked
on the chart. Regulus, of course. is
very bright. The next brightest star
on the chart is the star of magnitude
5.3, at the right of the chart. Neptune
is east of this star, in the positions
marked December l and January J.
1t is Of about the eighth magnitude
and may be seen with telescope of
an inch or more aperture.
The sun is at me Winter Solstice
December % at 9:34 am. The sun is
then farthest south, and that day is
the shortest day of the year. Last
june. when the sun was farthest north
we discussed briefly some of the bless
1ngS which the sun brings us and eX-
preSSlonS 20 illustrate the fact that
we recognize these blessings by the
language we use. Light is used meta.
phorically to repl esent anything which
Is good, and darkneSS-the absence of
lght-to represent anything which is
bad Now let us look at a few such
expressions taken from the Bible. II
is full of them. and only few typical
ones and familiar passages need be
mentioned
We begin with the third verse in
the Bible. in which we find God said,
Let there be light and there was
light And God saw the light that 1t
was good Milton expressed the idea
in the words, Hail. holy light. Off
spring of heav'n. first born" In the
first verse of the last chapter of the
Bible we find in the description of the
heavenly Jerusalem. And there shall
be no night there; and they need no
candle, neither light of the sum- for
the Lord God giveth them light"
But the children of the kingdom
shall he cast out into outer darkness;
there shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth" ''Then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun
God is light and in Him is no dark
ness At all. Il am the light of the |
world: he that followeth Me shall not |
walk in darkness but shall have the |
light of life" Jesus is the bright and |
morning star" God is "the Father of |
lights. the sun of righteousness" |
1.-THE Lord God is sun and shield"
THE sun shall no more he thy light |
by day. neither for brightness shall |
the moon give light unto thee. but the |
Lord shall be dnto thee an everlasting |
light and thy God thy glory i
and the days of thy mourning shall
he ended
\ few referring to death are: YEA,
though | walk through the valley OF
the shadow or death. l will fear no
evil" '1efore / go whence l shall not
return. even to the land of darkness
and the shadow of death: a land of
darkness. as darkness itself; and of
the shadow of death, without any