148 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



With its retinue of bright moons, its 

 wonderful and ever-changing markings 

 and its rapid rotation, its observation 

 is a source of never failing pleasure 

 Especially interesting phenomena of its 

 satellites may be seen on October 8, 14, 

 21, 23 and 26. 



Saturn is moving eastward and 

 southward in Cancer, a little to the left 

 of the Praesepe. On October 1 at 7 

 P. M., Mars in its eastward motion will 

 pass forty minutes to the north of Sat- 

 urn, so that on this evening both of 

 these very interesting worlds whose 

 appearances are so strikingly contrast- 

 ed may be seen together in the field of 

 the telescope, 



5K 5|» 5jC yfc ^f* 



The New Star. 



The nebula within whose boundaries 

 a new star recently appeared (as was 

 described in the article of last month) 

 is a faint, spiral nebula lying in the 

 borders of the constellation Cepheus, at 

 the point A of Figure 1. A photograph 

 of it with many of its neighboring stars 



M:,W^;r - : A ''* : 



//.■^•.■■^y-^CT-A* '*-* ■:■ ~v*..'. 7 - ■• . 



• -A ' A V.;-V^C. A A :J&? 



* AA' •-■**.■ '/A;-:. , ".. 'A'*vif • 



•• . ■•>■?-' ■■■■■£■■ ' *• ■'• ■^■iif'';.^ ■ :■ • 



• ." -■> • 



away. That a single new star might 

 appear in such a part of our universe 

 that it would be seen by us in a line 

 with the distant nebula and so be mis- 

 taken for a part of it, might not be sur- 

 prising, but such an explanation could 

 hardly be adduced to account for the 

 appearance of no less than six of these 

 objects- 



The conclusion seems unavoidable 

 that the new stars are actually within 

 and connected with the nebulas them- 

 selves. If this is so, it would seem that 

 the nebulas cannot be so immeasurablv 

 remote as some suppose, for were this 

 the case, a star, even though it exceed- 

 ed by millions of times the brightness 

 of the largest known suns of our uni- 

 verse, would be too far away to be vis- 

 ible to us. Yet though this conclusion 

 is certainly the most probable one, we 

 cannot be perfectly sure, even of this, 

 for it is just possible that in those dis- 

 tant universes (if they are such) there 

 may be action and changes on a scale 

 more stupendous than any hitherto wit- 

 nessed by us. 



Figure 2. The Spiral Nebula within which a new 

 star appeared. 



is shown in Figure 2. As the new star 

 is but of the fourteenth magnitude, it is 

 far too faint to be seen with a small 

 telescope, but faint as it is, its sudden 

 appearance is of the utmost philosophic 

 interest. 



When the complete records are ex- 

 amined it is found that no less than six 

 new stars have been known to appear 

 within the borders of spiral nebulas, 

 the brightest of which was the star 

 which in 1885 flashed out in the Great 

 Nebula of Andromeda. Some astrono- 

 mers think it probable that the spira! 

 nebulas are not true nebulous clonds at 

 all but that each is a univese of stars, 

 more or less like our own Milky Way 

 universe, but at an immense distance 



Visible Occulations of Algol for the 

 Season of 1917-1918. 



BY WILLIAM A. MASON, IN THE MONTHLY 

 EVENING SKY MAP. 



The following table gives the visible 

 minima of the occultations of the varia- 

 ble star Algol for the season of 1917- 

 1Q18. The time given is the middle of 

 the occultation, which begins five hours 

 earlier and lasts five hours later than 

 the hours indicated. 



The ephemeris has been corrected by 

 the accumulated acceleration of the 

 star's former period of revolution, 

 which now brings the minima one 

 hour earlier than the standard tables. 



The time given is U. S. Eastern 

 Standard Time. Algol is visible even- 

 ings in the northeast in the Fall, over- 

 head in the Winter, and in the north- 

 west in March and April. 



October 2 5:15 P. M- 



October 17 1 115 A. M. 



October 19 10 105 P. M. 



October 22 6:55 P. M. 



November 8 1 1 150 P. M. 



November 11 8:40 P. M. 



November 14 5 130 P. M. 



November 29 1 130 A. M- 



December 1 10:20 P. M. 



