40 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Toward the beginning of the month 

 Mars, Jupiter and Mercury are all 

 morning stars, though on July 12 the 

 last planet will again enter the evening 

 heavens. Two weeks later the beauti- 

 ful Saturn, which has been so conspic- 



E: OASUS 



* 





■ DElPmimu 



/EQuui-eoj. 



Figure 2. — Showing the path of the new comet 

 among the stars during the month of July. 



uous and interesting an object through- 

 out the winter, will itself pass to the 

 west of the sun and become a morning 

 star. The bright planet Venus, how- 

 ever, will remain shining in our even- 

 ing heavens throughout the month 

 and this is moving so rapidly eastward 

 among the stars that each evening it is 

 seen with less difficulty as it shines in 

 the twilight glow. From now on until 

 the end of the year this beautiful world 

 will continue to be the most beautiful 

 object in the evening heavens. It will 

 continue its motion away from the 

 sun until November 30; at this time it 

 will shine with one hundred forty-five 

 times the brightness of a first magni- 

 tude star, and for a month more it will 

 continue to grow still brighter. 



T T T T * 



The Eclipses in July. 



As an eclipse year the present year 

 is a remarkable and unusual one, since 

 it will witness no less than seven of 

 these phenomena ; this is the greatest 

 number of eclipses that can under any 

 circumstances take place during any 

 one year. Three of these eclipses have 

 already occurred ; two will occur dur- 

 ing the present month, while of the re- 

 maining two only the last one — that of 

 December 27 — will be visible in the 

 United States. 



On July 4 the full moon will enter the 

 great shadow of the earth at 2 hours 52 

 minutes P. M. (Eastern Standard 

 Time), and it will pass so nearly 

 through the shadow's center that it will 

 not fully emerge until 3 hours 33 min- 



utes later. Since even by the latter 

 time the full moon will not have risen 

 to observers in the United States, this 

 interesting eclipse will be wholly in- 

 visible to us. It will be seen, however, 

 from throughout Europe, Africa and 

 the South Atlantic ocean and from 

 Western Asia. 



The full moon of July 4 is thus an 

 eclipsed moon. Two weeks later, when 

 our satellite has become new, its ex- 

 treme upper edge will pass over the 

 lower edge of the sun's disc, but so 

 nearly does this eclipse escape occur- 

 ring altogether that under the most fa- 

 vorable circumstances only one-twelfth 

 of the sun's diameter will be seen to be 

 hidden. This eclipse will be visible 

 only from points in the Indian and 

 Antarctic oceans. 



Wolf's Comet During July. 



There are three comets now in the 

 heavens, but two of these are very faint 

 and it is upon the third that the interest 

 of astronomers principally centers. 

 This third comet is the one which since 

 its discovery, a year ago, has been 

 drawing nearer to the earth and to the 

 sun and which during this time has 

 been kept under constant observation 

 at the larger observatories. The bright- 

 ness of this remarkable object has 

 steadily increased and it was strongly 

 hoped that when the comet had at- 

 tained its least distance from us it 

 might become visible and perhaps even 

 conspicuous, to the naked eye. This 

 now, however, seems very improbable, 

 but it will almost certainly become 

 bright enough to be seen in a compara- 

 tively small telescope. 



Since last March the comet has 

 moved entirely across Aquilla and Del- 

 phinus, attaining by lulv 1 a position 

 a little to the west of the borders of the 

 Great Square of Pegasus, as shown at 

 the point A of Figure 2. The observer 

 may find it on this evening by first 

 bringing the upper star C of the pair 

 CD to the center of his telescope ; the 

 comet will then be exactly 2 minutes 

 33 seconds following and 22 minutes 22 

 seconds north of this star. 



During July the comet remains with- 

 in the Great Square, pursuing the path 

 AB : its distance from us will diminish 

 in this interval from 107,000.000 to 95,- 

 000,000 miles, and although by August 



