62 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



scope, and the extreme rarity of the tail 

 compared with our atmosphere shows 

 the utter absurdity of imagining injury 

 to us. No doubt the comet in the even- 

 ing sky will have presented as fine an ap- 

 pearance as it displayed in the mornings, 

 and much of novel interest will have 

 been learned in the fortnight before this 

 is read. 



Though the comet is getting fainter 

 each night, it should be readily followed 

 throughout June with the naked eye by 

 those who know where to look for it. In 

 fact the result of reliable estimations by 

 Dr. Ebell show that the comet should 

 still be seen with the naked eye nearly 

 to the end of July. By referring to the 

 map it will be seen that it is moving 

 eastwards through the uninteresting 

 constellation Sextans. The only bright 

 star that it approaches is Regulus in the 

 Sickle, which is 12° north on June 3. 



During June the sun is moving east- 

 ward among the stars faster than the 

 comet, and the angle between them is be- 

 ing lessened with the result that the 

 comet sets earlier each night. 



The numbers given for stellar magni- 

 tude of the comet is an estimate of the 

 effect of the whole light of the comet on 

 the eye. A sixth magnitude star is at 

 the limit of vision for a keen sighted eye, 

 and the comet will not be as faint as that 

 till July 1. Those who follow the comet 

 after June 10 will be bothered by moon- 

 light, and the fainter portions of the 

 tail will be lost to view on the sky illumi- 

 nated by moonlight. 



them by the naked eye, and they will 

 appear in the telescope together. 



Mars is still visible in the west in the 

 early evening, but it is now very faint. 

 Jupiter is a brilliant object toward the 

 south in the early evening, slowly getting 

 farther west each night. Its motion 

 among the stars may be readily observed 

 by watching its position relative to the 

 stars in the constellation of Virgo. 



THE PLANETS. 



The sun is at the summer solstice on 

 June 22 at 2.49 a. m. Eastern standard 

 time. In spite of the fact that the great- 

 est number of hours of daylight occur 

 on this day, the sun does not set latest. 



Mercury is a morning star and will be 

 visible toward the last an hour before 

 sunrise from June 18 to June 25. 



Those who observed the comet in 

 April and May saw the bright morning 

 star Venus. She has decreased in 

 brightness since then, but is still a fine 

 object. On the morning of June 4, she 

 passes very close to the moon on the 

 north of it. On the following morning 

 Venus and Saturn will be so close to- 

 gether that it will be hard to separate 



Resource in the Love of Nature. 



In the love of nature is another 

 source of saving grace. Science is 

 power. In the stores of human experi- 

 ence lies the key to action, and mod- 

 ern civilization is built on Science. The 

 love of nature is akin to Science but 

 different. Contact with outdoor things 

 is direct experience. It is not stored, 

 not co-ordinated, not always convert- 

 ible into power, but real, nevertheless, 

 and our own. The song of birds, the 

 swarming of bees, the meadow car- 

 peted with flowers, the first pink har- 

 bingers of the early spring, the rush of 

 the waterfall, the piling up of the rocks, 

 the trail through the forest, the sweep 

 of the surf, the darting of the fishes, 

 the drifting of the snow, the white 

 crystals of the frost, the shrieking of 

 the ice, the boom of the bittern, the 

 barking of the sea lions, the honk of 

 the wild geese, the skulking coyote 

 who knows that each beast is his 

 enemy and has not even a flea 

 to help him "forget that he is 

 a dog," the leap of the salmon, the 

 ecstacy of the mocking-bird and bobo- 

 link, the nesting of the field-mice, the 

 chatter of the squirrel, the gray lichen 

 of the oak, the green moss on the log, 

 the poppies of the field and the Mari- 

 posa lilies of the cliff — all these and 

 ten thousand more pictures which 

 could be called up equally at random 

 and from every foot of land on the 

 globe — all these are objects of nature. 

 All these represent a point of human 

 contact and the reaction which makes 

 for youth, for virtue and for enthusi- 

 asm. — President David Starr Jordan in 

 "Life's Enthusiasms." 



