Evening star., 1940-02-01
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Field, Laboratory
And Study
Bv Thomas r. Henri.

Some of the rarest celestial events in
history are scheduled during the next
few months, with planets, earth, moon
sun and stars rushing past each other
in strange conf1gurations and, for the
most part, in plain view of night
watchers.
This will be the most remarkable
month of all, according to predictions
of the United States Naval Observatory,
with five evening stars at once strung
out like so many lanterns across the
Western sky. The climax will come
about February % when the planet
Mercury will be just above the Western
horizon shortly after sunset. AS it
mounts the sky it will be followed in
order by Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and
Mars, all visible at the same time. With
them there will be sixth invisible eve
ming star, the very cold and distant
planet Uranus.
1t is altogether two complicated a
mathematical problem, Naval observa-
there has been such lineup before or
when it ever will happen again The
planets move at different rates around
the sun, and only once in every few
thousand years do they overtake each
other. A few generations ago, when the
positions of these planets were generally
supposed to influence human fortunes,
such configuration would have been
equivalent to threat of the certain de-
struction of the world.
Thrown SO close to each other in the
winter sky, as it will appear from the
earth the members of the suns long
scattered family will seem to be staging
very slow, stately dance. Nearly every
thing that takes place, the Naval OBJ
servatory astronomers say, will be
easily visible with the naked eye.
There will be conjunction of the
bad-luck planet Saturn and the war
planet Mars at 3 am. February 13. The
two will seem almost to Craze each
other, Mars being only three degrees
north of Jupiter and moving very
rapidly.
On February 20 at pm. little Venus
will whizz by giant Jupiter with only
one degree of distance between them,
and it will look to the observer as if
they were going to crash head-on.
Also, the Naval Almanac Office records
show, there will be five conjunctions of
the moon with various visible planets
during the month. The earth's satellite
will pass in succession past Mercury,
Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn. In the
conjunction with Mars at 1888 pm.
February 10 the planet and the moon
will almost seem to hit each other, with
only one degree between them. Actually,
of course, they will be millions of miles
apart
October will witness one of the
longest and most spectacular total
eclipses of the sun in history.
Starting in the mid-Pacific the
blacked-out sun will sweep across North
ern South America and southeastward
across the Atlantic to South Africa. 1t
will finally come to an end in the
Indian Ocean. A partial eclipse will be
visible over most of Florida. The maxi
mum duration Of totality in South
America will be 4 minutes and so
seconds. At one point in the mid-Atlan-
tic, where it will be impossible to set
up astronomical instruments, the sun
will remain darkened for minutes and
IS seconds.
Ordinarily eclipses can be observed for
only about minutes. The eclipse of
1887 lasted minutes at one place in
the mid-Pacific and expeditions from all
over the earth set up observing sta
tions on uninhabited islands at great
expense. This year the darkening of
the solar disk can be observed from
cities like Quito and Caracas, with
well equipped observatories.
There will be partial solar eclipse
on April which will sweep along the
Gulf Coast and over Northern Florida
into the Atlantic OF no value for
scientific observation, it will be spec
tacular sight for the people of cities
like New orleans, Baton Rouge and
Tampa.
The next celestial event scheduled
will be the swift passage of the little
planet Mercury across the face of the
sum- Mercury is SO tiny that it will
be invisible against the glaring back
ground except with a telescope. 1t will
require two days, November II and IL,
for the swift-moving planet to cross the
vast solar expanse.
Defends Role of Germans
In United States.