THE STARRY HEAVENS IN DECEMBER 



253 



The December Stars. 



Above Sirius, the brilliant Orion 

 hangs high in the southeast, within 

 whose borders the wonderful nebula 

 .and clouds of stars at C, Figure 1, the 

 red star at E, the blue double star at 

 D, and many other interesting objects 

 well repay observation with a small 

 telescope. Above and to the left of 

 Orion, the Twins, the bright Capella, 

 the Bull, and the Lesser Dog Star (at 

 F), now make the eastern heavens a 

 most brilliant sight. Below the Twins 

 there this month enters the evening 

 heavens the very faint group, Cancer, 

 •of which the curious star cluster, at 

 G, is an interesting object in a small 

 telescope. This small cloud of stars, 

 known as the Praesaepe, or Beehive, 

 is easily visible to the naked eye as a 

 faint patch of nebulous light, while 

 in the telescope it is seen to be com- 

 posed of about one hundred and fifty 

 stars. It is thus a very inferior cluster 

 when compared to some others in 

 which the stars are numbered by tens 

 •of thousands, its more conspicuous ap- 

 pearance doubtless arising from its 

 nearness to us. 



The bright planet Saturn, which now 

 shines out with its golden radiance 

 three times as brightly as a first mag- 

 nitude star, adds also to the brilliance 

 •of the eastern heavens. It is now be- 

 tween Gemini and Taurus, in almost 

 the exact center of the Milky Way, 

 and it will remain in this part of the 



it will be again for nearly thirty years. 

 For during this month it not only 

 reaches its highest position among the 

 stars, but the sun also reaches at this 



Figure 2. The present appearance ot the planet 

 Saturn as viewed in an inverting telescope. 



heavens for a long time. By December 

 I , I 9 I 5» it will have moved only to the 

 position S, Figure I, in the extreme 

 eastern border of the Milky Way, and 

 by this time its southern motion among 

 the stars will have become distinctly 

 noticeable. 



The Planet Saturn. 



This beautiful world is now in more 

 favorable position for observation than 



Figure 3. The planet Saturn as it will appear in 

 the year 1922. 



time its greatest distance below the 

 equator and so shines most directly on 

 the rings of the planet, which are there- 

 fore seen by us brightly illuminated 

 and widely opened out. 



Both the earth and the sun are now 

 so far below the plane of the rings that 

 these present the appearance shown in 

 Figure 2. As Saturn moves slowly 

 eastward along the path AVB, Figure 

 1, it will also move southward among 

 the stars and we will view the rings 

 more and more obliquely. By the year 

 1922 the planet will have moved down 

 so far that we will be looking at the 

 rings exactly edgewise and they will 

 then present the appearance shown in 

 Figure 3. Finally, by the year 1929, 

 the Ringed Planet will have reached 

 its lowest position among the stars, 

 below and to the right of the point A, 

 Figure 1, and it will then rise far 

 toward the south and remain low in the 

 sky, even when crossing the meridian. 



A glass of two or three inches' aper- 

 ture will show the rings clearly, but 

 the larger the telescope that can be 

 used, the more perfectly is the beauty 

 of this wonderful system brought out. 

 In a moderately large glass it is clearly 

 seen that the rings are made up of 

 three, as lettered in Figure 2 ; the wide 

 ring, B, is distinctly the brightest and 

 is separated from A by a distinct, wide, 

 vacant space. A similar, but much 

 finer, line divides the outer ring, B, 

 into two parts. But most interesting 

 of all is the Dusky Ring, C, which 

 borders the inside of B and through 

 which the outline of the ball of the 

 planet is clearly seen. 



A most interesting observation was 

 made several years ago when Japetus, 

 the eighth satellite of Saturn, happened 



