Show Ai J HEAVENS IN OCTOBER i odes law The Asteroids The Meteors The Comets The Har Harvest Harvest vest Moon and Hunters Bunters Moon Constellations BY W A GATHRIGHT In a former article we spoke of th ta that with their satellites con cony Qua our solar system besides some bodies bodIe to be mentioned later on In th the year 1772 a German professor af of tb name of Bode established a U aI I I series EjeN of numbers of which he asserted that they represented pretty nearly the mean Theart distances of the planets from the van The law of oJ the terms of the ig 15 SKI 50 simple that we cannot re ro refrain raIn frain from giving it though we shall naturally avoid entering into math mathe calculations in articles this Write down clown nine nino Is in a row anti and beginning with the second add sua suti ee the te simple series 3 6 12 12 24 41 4 of which the reader will perceive at a glance that each of its terms in 15 twice the preceding one Thus Thie we get the series 4 7 10 16 28 52 leG m 88 Dividing each by 10 they op oppress e press with tolerable accuracy the distances of the planets from th sun nun in terms of the radius of the earths orbit with the exception of the last for br the number would not even approximately represent the distance Of Neptune This law called after Its discoverer Bodes Bodea law aw attracted much attention and afterwards led to the discovery of an extremely numerous of planetary bodies the Aster olds There was no planet for or whose distance the term 2 in Ir the above series fitted It was VU therefore that tat there might be a yet undiscovered Planet between Mars and Jupiter This Thin belief was strengthened when in 1781 Sir William Herschel discovered Uranus with whose distance the term iN in Bodes Boda series corresponds However it was wa not before the 1st of or January that is the first day of It last that the first planetary body between Mars and Jupiter was discovered by the Sudan Plaza He named it after the tutelary goddess goddes of Sicily Ceres The discovery created an immense excitement ex all over the civilized world especially In Ger Germany Germany many and gave an additional stimulus to further observations especially as the diminutive size sie of Cores Ceres made it more probable that there were more of these thae bodies between Mare Mara and ad Jupiter And so it proved for as near as 1802 Dr Olbers discovered another of these small arnall planets Harding discovered ered erel the third in which he called Juno and Dr Olbers again Vesta in 1807 Vesta is the largest of the whole numerous group anti and Becomes occasion occasionally occasionally ally visible to the naked eye Not be before before fore 1845 wae wa the fifth one discovered but from that time hardly a year passed without new ones to the number The has swelled now to nearly All of these asteroids are extremely small the largest Vesta having bing a diameter that falls short of miles Of their real size eize our knowl knowledge knowledge edge 1 is extremely limited as they are to exhibit a sufficiently disk but of their aggregate moss mass we nifty yet gain more certain knowledge The famous discovered of Le Leverrier verrier has lias calculated that the whole amount of matter distributed between tars Mars anti Jupiter cannot be greater thaI thau of the mass of the mirth The of the most of these thesa asteroids are extremely eccentric or tu lit other words deviate much from rain the circular form All planets move in ellipses hut but the ellipses described by bythe b the asteroids In itt their revolutions about the sun are more elongated than in the case of the larger planets The reader can easily imagine that the origin of these diminutive planets could not fail to engage the attention of astronomers an though nothing has been conclusively ively proved Drove in th respect there Is 11 fy m probability almost verging on certainty that by a series of stupendous explosions aion a it once larger planet say of the tho size of Mars was shattered Into all those numerous fragments Of course How and when these explosions were produced ie is a question which may be b satisfactorily answered We have mentioned all the planets but there are In time the solar system two more Classes of bodies which somewhat tilt dif differ fer ter front from them the meteors and corn com comets corneta eta ets Every one ha heard of bodies that occasionally fall from the stay upon the earth some of which have been found to weigh several tons While such a body Hies athwart the sky it is called a meteor but the pieces which separately fall from It t are known bi the name of aerolites or meteorites It If nothing on the earth and they merely present a a momentary light they are ale known under the name of shoot shootIng hag Ing stars The number of the latter is enormous As to the meteorites that have fallen in iLl the last century and whose masses have been preserved in college and other cabinets the number is 30 Their glossy crust eon con consists principally of oxide of iron and andis is of strong magnetic po power er Occasion Occasionally Occasionally ally these meteoric bodies blIes that burn burnup burnup up and they reach the surface of the earth and as sold said be before tore fore are known by the name of shoot shooting lag ing stars fall in great showers and when this happens it has been observed that they radiate from one point in inthe Inthe the sky making the sky look like a large umbrella The remarkable bod hod bodie ie les called comets have hava from the re times been objects of most Intense interest and have been looked at with no mean degree of awe Until the time when the nature of these was better known and the cloud of superstition anti and ignorance was dispersed that for bO 0 many rl ties f prevailed comets looked at atWith atwith With feelings of terror and as harbing harbingers ers of great calamities They are like the planets bodies that per perform perform form their motions around the sun only with this difference nce that thoy mire rave rare spread ovar oo an Immense space ana describe orbits orbit that Jn many cases differ from the elliptical form of th the orbits of the planets Those which describe ellipses return In lit a number of years but those whose path te s parabolic and hyperbolic never do One of the most wonderful results of DC recent research is the theory that fiat rl and meteors are connected and that a comet is nothing but an im Ian imm m n a swarm swami of meteors We have how hew mentioned all the bodies that constitute our solar system By his immense power of attraction the sun compels he the planets with their satel satellites lites the meteors and aerolites many of which are either met or overtaken by the revolving planets and absorbed l b y them and the comets many mans of which recede far enough from roan the sun tp to become subject to the alt attractive power of other bodies s and thus are only temporary members of our solar System When we consider that ve thousands upon thousands of such systems perhaps nanny many times than our own our souls are filled with feelings of awe nwe and reverence for him lalan that created them all and keeps them in iu their appointed places Harvest Moon and Hunters Moon The moon In her daily progress rises about minutes later every day than on the preceding but butla butin la in places of considerable latitude a remarkable deviation from this rule takes place particularly about the Urns tima of the full moon in September Sand and October when she rises nines for far several nights together only from eighteen to twentysix minutes later in ono one day daythan daythan than on that Immediately preceding Tho Pho full moon In September is known as su the Harvest Moon und and the full fullmoon fullmoon moon in October as the Hunters Moon so We re ao now nov the Hunters Moon in all her beauty and About bon equator the tho moon rIs throughout the year with nearly the Intervals of mIll utes and there the Harvest Moon and Hunters Moon are not known The Tle Constellations Some of tim the most striking constellations lations visible about 9 0 during October evenings are Pegasus and Andromeda two groups which are closely connected Any one oo who looks upward on an ami unclouded evening in the tima month of October cannot fall faIl to see four bright stars forming a large square called the square of Pegasus Three of them pertain to tc the constella constellation tion Pegasus whilst the fourth be belongs belongs longs to Andromeda The star In the tho northwestern corner Is called while that in the diametrically opposite site corner is Gamma or Al The star in the southwestern corner of tie the square is known as Markab which Is 13 degress south of o while that in km the diametrically opposite corner Js s which is 14 degrees east of To tho south of Pegasus Is Aquarius while still further south Is Places Pisces Australia the Southern Fish which contains the beautiful first magnitude star This star comes to the meridian far down in the southern hemisphere on the of this month and it may be readily known by its being the brightest star in all that region of or the tho heavens To the west of Pegasus we see the Swan and the Eagle flying along the Milky Way and close to the western horizon is Corona Borealis Hercules and Ursa Major the Great Bear is now directly beneath the North Star with lila his legs hid from fron our view by the horizon This croat creat constellation familiarly termed the Dipper is one of the easiest to learn in all the heavens The Priests of Belus and amid the Chaldean shepherds were equally struck with Us its remark remarkable remarkable able outlines And It Is a little that a nation of North American Indians anti the earliest Arabs Ar bp of Asia Should have both given it the name of Great Bear when so far as we e know there had never been any communication be between tween them On tho te side of the North Star from the Great Groat Bear Beare we e see the constellations Cepheus and ami Cassiopeia with Perseus close behind There are five bright stars in Cassiopeia arranged in the form of a chain or throne which ac according according cording to ancient mythology was oc occupied by the tho Ethiopian Queen Can Cas Cassiopeia Hence the name of the con constellation Just emerging above the eastern horizon Is Taurus the Bull which contains those two remarkable and beautiful star clusters known as the and Hyades Who has not hoard heard of the Pleiades and Hyades Their praises have been sung by bards tromp from time immemorial Homer and other ancient writers mention the Pleiades and He Ho who made auntie them makes a beautiful allusion in the book of Job to td the sweet Influences of the Pleiades When we consider how many of the worlds greatest writers writ rs have given expression to the admira admiration thin tion with which they viewed the starry firmament does it not seem a little Strange that there are yet so many who the sordid and daily pur pursuits bur suits of Ufa to so their atten attention attention tion as to entirely exclude all con contemplation of thin tho grandeur find and in ta infinity finity of tho material universe |