34 2 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



■bright star whose right ascension he 

 knows has actually reached the merid- 

 ian. Bearing in mind the right ascen- 

 sion of the sun at the time of the year he 

 might perhaps estimate that the star 

 was an hour to the left or to the right of 

 the meridian. The time found by men- 

 tally subtracting the right ascensions 

 would then be one hour later than the 

 true time in the first case and one hour 



southeast about one hour before sunrise. 



Jupiter entered the morning sky on 

 February 24 and is far too near .the sun 

 to be observed toward the beginning of 

 the month, though by March 31 it rises 

 nearly an hour before sunrise. 



All of these four bright planets, as 

 well as the planet Uranus, are now 

 crowded into one small region of the 

 sky which would be by far the most 



Figure 2. — The morning sky to the west of the sun, showing how no less than five of the planets are now mo\ ins. 

 through this region. 



earlier in the second. Soon he will find 

 that a mere glance at the heavens suf- 

 fices to tell him the time, at least ap- 

 proximately. 



The Planets in March. 



All of the bright planets except Sat- 

 urn are now morning stars. 



Mercury, which entered the morning 

 sky on February 21, reaches its greatest 

 distance from the sun on March 20 and 

 for a few days before and after this date 

 may be seen shining in the dawn, far to 

 the south of the east point. 



Venus is still brilliant in the morning 

 skies, rising about two hours before 

 sunrise throughout the month. At the 

 beginning of the month it is far below 

 the celestial equator but it is moving 

 rapidly northward and its point of ris- 

 ing on the horizon is continually ap- 

 proaching the east point. \t will cross 

 the equator and then begin to rise north 

 of east on April 28; it will enter the 

 evening sky on September 12. 



Mars is even nearer the sun than Ve- 

 nus and is therefore in a very disadvan- 

 tageous position for observation. 

 Throughout the month it rises in the 



striking and 



interesting 



part of the 



heavens were it not that the sun is also 

 very near this region and, by his over- 

 powering brightness renders a satisfac- 

 tory study of these planets impossible. 

 Their positions and motions throughout 

 the month are, however, shown in Fig. 

 2. 



IVJany interesting conjunctions and 

 configurations occur during the next few 

 weeks among these closely neighboring 

 worlds. Thus Venus passes to the east 

 of Uranus on March 19; Mars passes 

 very close to Jupiter on March 23 ; Mer- 

 cury passes to the east of Jupiter on 

 March 29, and to the east of Mars on 

 April 3. At the conjunction of Mars 

 and Jupiter the two planets will appear 

 to be separated by a distance equal to 

 only one-third of the distance across the 

 moon. This would form a most beauti- 

 ful sky figure were the two worlds not 

 so nearly lost in the rays of the sun. 



The planet Saturn is still high in the 

 heavens, almost on the border line be- 

 tween Taurus and Gemini. It is thus 

 in excellent position for observation, 

 and is a beautiful object in a moderately 



