Year: 1875


Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and Venus All


IA Sight-Their Joint Appearance


SIFOr This Engagements Only


Not often DO the starry heavens show US
four strongly-shining, bright planets in one
night, but this has been for some time past
the position Of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and
Venus. First comes into view that giant
planet-.hat vast orb, whose diameter is
eleven times and his volume about 1900
times that Of our own glObe-JUpiteT, the
planet OF the mighty clOud-envelOpes,
whose continued. OyershadOwing Of the
planet himself has led astronomers TO
doubt if telescope vision has every yet really
penetrated these enormous layers of vapOr
to the surface Of the planet itself. Jupiter
is seen soon after dark almost directly in
the zenith-lis position at o'clock being
a little west and south Of it; and his slow
and majestic sweep around the sun, which
requires twelve Of our years, scarcely
better compOTts with his vast dimensions
than does his apparent journey every night
through the skies Of earth. He sets
not far from midnight. Proctor believes
JupitertO be still a mass Of seething in
terual volcanic fire, giving out heat like a
sun, and having but a very slight crust
cooled as Yet, and thai subject to continual
fiery OUtburSts and Oyer0Ows; while the
vast ClOud-belts, a thousand miles deep, are
either partly Of volcanic origin, or are dis
charging upon the planet itself such floods
Of sulphur-charged rain as We cannot
imagine.


Mars next comes in sight. He rises red
away in the southern part Of the western
horizon soon afer dusk, and by 9 O'Clock is
a conspicuous object, well up in the south
eTn heavens, and easily distinguishable by
his Tuddy hue, II is q good time TO scan
Mars through a good telescope, for it will
be two years before he is again in 50 favor
able a position as he has been in for the
last month, and will be for a little time
longer. That bright star of the ruddy hue
that comes up almost in the southeast soon
after dark, is the neighbOr world which of
all the planetary system has presented the
most interesting field for astronomical
study, and best rewarded such studies. II
is pretty definitely decided that this Tuddy
hue is due 70 some quality or Characteristic
Of his soil. Mas, smaller planet than earth,
presents a number Of features that seem TO
warrant the conclusion that his more gen
eral laws and features are something akin
to those Of our own world. he has an at
mOsphere: he has his season of winter and
sUmmeT-the region Of snow and ice around
the southern pole, annually and visibly de-
Creasing and increasing in what may be
summer and winter. There are on that
distant world oceans and continents; this
much at least is certain. Not such oceans
as the Atlantic and Pacific, but strange,
bOttle-shaped seas, Of no great extent COM
pared with earth's greatest. Whether they
are ever frozen or not nobody on earth yet
knows; but il is Mr.. PrOCtOr's belief that
Mas and othe- planets than ours, has gone
far past his period Of grCa est life, and is
fast approaching, if he be not already en-
tering, the cold and lfeless condition Of
such bodies as our moon, whose eternal
heat is exhausted.


Later, rising wan and far, 4 pale but
luminous ghost Of a planet in the eastern
sky, comes up great Saturn-the Tinged
world. This, on some accounts, is the
most interesting study Of all the planets;
chiefly because Of the mobility and IN
certainty Of its occasionally shifting shape,
and because of its giant illuminated rings
and its eight attendant moons. Its enOr-
nous distance also invests it with a certain
interest which would be wanting in near
object. IL IS ascertained that its density
does not exceed that Of water; and the
probabilities seem to favor the conclusion
that Saturn is still a globe Of molten mat
ter-a world Of liquid FIRE. Its aspect seen
on a clear night through a good glass, as
the great lemon-cOlOred planet, girdled with
its vast elliptic rings, goes sailing silently
across the field Of vision, is beautiful and
interesting beyond that Of any other.


Much later-in fact the early dawn Of
the mOrning-Venus comes resplenden9y
into view. Most brilliant Of all the planets
to us, because she is nearer TO US and to
the sun, this remarkable sister world, near
est and apparently most like our Own
world, is never more brilliant, never more
beautiful, than when, as the morning star,
she sheds the lustre of her golden (but bOr-
rowed) beams upon the earth IN the still
ness Of the clear morning. Venus will
probably always be a difficult object TO
study, because of her proximity TO the sun,
but it is found that there are reasons fol
believing some of her mountains to be
equal in height to the highest of our own
world.