LOOKING UPWARDS 



157 



On October n Venus and Mercury 

 will be close together in the sky, the 

 former planet being north of the latter 

 at a distance only one-third as great as 

 the distance across the moon. They 

 may be seen near the ground in the 

 southwest shining out in the sunset 

 glow before the bright stars of the sky 

 become visible. 



Mars is too near the sun to be ob- 

 served this month. It passes to the 

 west of the sun and becomes a morn- 

 ing star on November 4. 



Jupiter is also steadily sinking in the 

 southwest. The observer will notice 

 the Venus is drawing nearer to Jupiter 

 and that by the end of the moath the 

 first planet sets only io minutes after 

 the second. Thev will not reach their 



so near the earth that it will completely 

 hide the sun for 1 minute and 50 

 seconds. If the skies are clear, excel- 

 lent photographs of the sun's corona 

 will doubtless be obtained from stations 

 in this part of the path. The eclipse 

 will not be visible from the United 

 States except in the extreme south- 

 eastern part, where it will be seen as a 

 small partial eclipse only. 



THE SHOOTING STARS OF OCTOBER. 



The observer who witnessed the 

 beautiful August display of shooting 

 stars may be interested to observe a 

 somewhat fainter shower which will 

 occur from the 18th to the 20th of the 

 nresent month. This is known as the 

 Geminid shower and is composed of 

 many bluish, very swiftly moving me- 



Figure 3. The total eclipse of the sun of October 10. The shadow of the moon will sweep over the earth 



along the path A B C; at points within this narrow strip only the sun will be seen completely 



hidden. Within the area, M N O S T V, the moon will be seen to partially cover the disc of 



the sun. Elsewhere on the earth the eclipse will be wholly invisible. 



point of closest approach, however, un- 

 til November 7. 



Saturn throughout the month will 

 l>e the most conspicuous object in the 

 evening sky. Its ringrs are now well 

 widened out, and for many months it 

 will remain in excellent position for ob- 

 servation. 



Uranus is now in Capricornus, in 

 the position shown in Figure 1. 



Neptune is at present in the constella- 

 tion of the Twins. It rises at midnight, 

 and is hence a morning star. 



THE TOTAE ECEIPSE OF THE SUN. 



An important total eclipse of the 

 sun will occur on the morning of Oc- 

 tober 10, the path of the shadow of the 

 moon as it sweeps over the turning 

 earth being that shown in Figure 3. 

 When the shadow has reached the 

 eastern part of Brazil the moon will be 



teors which may best be seen by facing 

 eastward on the evenings indicated a 

 short while before midnight. The 

 shooting stars will dart outward in all 

 directions from the southwestern edge 

 of the constellation Gemini, usually 

 leaving a trail behind them. 



A Remarkable Opportunity. 



Mr. John H. Choate, of Salem, Mass- 

 achusetts, sends us the following item 

 as he expresses it, detailing a circum- 

 stance that occurred some time ago. 

 It is illustrative of the knowledge pos- 

 sessed by some intelligent and presum- 

 ably educated persons. 



In a company of ladies, one remarked 

 that she had seen in the paper that 

 there were to be two full moons that 

 month. "Oh, I am glad to hear that," 

 exclaimed another. "I never have seen 

 two full moons at once." 



