THE HEAVEN'S IN MARCH 



287 



lime) ; this night and the following' clay 

 will hence he of equal lengths, and at 

 this instant winter will end and spring 

 will begin. 



The Total Eclipse of the Moon. 



Six hours after the sun has passed 

 the Vernal Equinox the moon will en- 

 ter the earth's shadow and a total 

 eclipse of our satellite will begin. As 

 may be seen from Figure 2, the moon 

 will pass through almost the center 

 of the earth's great shadow cone ; the 

 eclipse will therefore not only be a 

 total one, but it will last an unusually 

 long time. The moon will reach the 

 point A and the eclipse begin on March 

 22 at 5 hours 13 minutes A. M. ; it will 

 reach the point B and the eclipse be- 

 come total at 6 hours 1 1 minutes A. M. ; 

 it will reach the position C and begin to 

 emerge from the shadow at 7 hours 44 

 minutes A. M. ; and it will finally 

 wholly emerge from the shadow and 

 the eclipse will end at 8 hours 43 min- 

 utes A. M. (Eastern standard time). 

 The eclipse will therefore last no less 

 than three and one-half hours, the 

 moon remaining" wholly within the 

 shadow for 1 hour and 33 minutes. 



Observers in the Eastern States will 

 thus see the eclipse begin in the early 

 morning when the full moon has sunk 



more of the eclipse will be visible to 

 him. Those who are on the Pacific 

 coast will be able to watch the entire 

 phenomenon from its beginning to the 

 end of totality. 



The Planets in March 



The planet Mercury will reach its 

 greatest distance east of the sun on 

 the afternoon of March 11. For a few- 

 evenings before and after this date it 

 may be seen shining low in the twi- 

 light glow, almost exactly above the 

 west point of the horizon, for somewhat 

 more than one hour after sunset. 



The beautiful planet Venus still 

 shines with great brilliance in the west- 

 ern heavens and although it is now 

 drawing continually nearer the sun it 

 is still by far the most conspicuous 

 object in the sky. During the month it 

 will move eastward among the stars, 

 almost entirely across the constellation 

 of Aries; on April 3 its eastward mo- 

 tion will cease and it will then begin 

 to move rapidly westward again. At 

 this time this bright, silvery planet, 

 with the Hyades and Pleiades shining 

 in the sky to the left of it, will make a 

 beautiful and striking figure in the 

 western heavens. 



Venus will attain its greatest brisrht- 



Figure 3. — Drawings of Venus when in its present position. The irregularity 

 of the line dividing the day side from the night side of the planet is clearly seen. 

 This is probably a twilight effect. 



low toward the western horizon. Our 

 satellite will unfortunately have set to 

 them before the moon is wholly hidden, 

 and therefore the greater part of the 

 eclipse will be invisible to them. But 

 while the moon is setting to the eastern 

 observers it will still be high in the 

 early morning sky to those in the west- 

 ern parts of our country, and so the 

 farther west the observer is situated the 



ness on Alarch 19, at which time it will 

 shine with 21 times the brightness 01 a 

 first mangnitude star. The observer 

 should not fail to examine this beauti- 

 ful object from time to time with a 

 small telescope during the present 

 month and for the first two weeks in 

 April, lie will see how, as it draws 

 nearer the earth, it seems to grow 

 steadilv larger, and how as its sunlit 



