ASTRONOMY WITH AN OPERA-GLASS. 



205 



the two planets will rapidly part company, Saturn sinking toward the 

 horizon day by day until it is no longer seen, while Venus, moving 

 eastwardly, rises higher every evening. About the middle of July, 

 Venus, having reached her greatest eastern elongation, will turn upon 



Draco and its Neighbors. 



her track and move westwardly, setting a little earlier every night. At 

 the middle of August she will attain her greatest brilliancy, and will 

 be a superb phenomenon. Being then in that part of her orbit which 

 passes between the earth and the sun, her illuminated disk will be in 

 the form of a crescent. A good field-glass, under favorable circum- 

 stances, will show this crescent form of Venus, and a most beautiful 

 sight it is. The crescent will grow larger and narrower in proportion 

 as Venus approaches nearer to the line joining the earth and the sun, 

 and, as she approaches that line, of course she will draw closer to the 

 horizon, until about the end of August, she disappears from the even- 

 ing sky, to reappear in the east as a morning-star in the autumn. 



Jupiter will remain in the neighborhood of Spica in Virgo 

 throughout the summer. The surface features of this majestic planet 

 are far beyond the reach of an opera- or field-glass, but some of the 



13* 



