1 82 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



vember 14 and 15 that the Leonids, or 

 November shooting stars, are to be 

 looked for. Since the thickest part of 

 the great stream has passed far beyond 

 the orbit of the earth, however, a bril- 

 liant display must not be expected. If 

 after midnight the observer will turn 

 toward the northeast and fix his atten- 

 tion upon the western border of the con- 

 stellation Leo, he will at intervals of 

 every few minutes see a bluish, very 



emerge from the sun's rays until De- 

 cember 17. 



Venus is seen as a wonderfully bril- 

 liant object low in the southwest for 

 about two hours after sunset. On No- 

 vember 8 it attains its greatest distance 

 south of the equator of the sky, being 

 then no less than three degrees south 

 of the Winter Solstice or lowest point 

 of the heavens ever attained by our sun. 

 It is approaching the earth and hence 



Figure 2. A small portion of Fig. 1, enlarged to show the position and 

 motion of the planet Uranus. 



swiftly moving "star" dart outward 

 from a point near the upper edge of the 

 blade of the Sickle, move in any direc- 

 tion over the face of the sky and then 

 suddenly disappear. 



A less well-known, but what will 

 probably this year prove to be an even 

 more interesting shower, is that of the 

 Taurids. These are to be looked for on 

 the evenings of November 21 and 22; 

 they are slow moving, yellowish, shoot- 

 ing stars which move outward in all 

 directions from a point a little above 

 and to the right of Aldebaran (from 

 the point S of ^iir- T \ pnd it is said that 

 fireballs are frequently seen among 

 them. 



As most of our readers doubtless 

 know, it i- imnos c ible that these so- 

 called shooting stars should be real 

 stars or suns : thev are caused by the 

 collision of our earth with o-reat streams 

 of meteon> particles, each particle be- 

 ing burnt no as it ploughs through our 

 atmo^nhere owing to the great friction 

 to which it is subjected- 



*fc ^k itr ^fc ^c 



The Planets in November. 



Mercurv is invisible throughout 

 month. It enters the evening sk\ 

 November i. but does not rearh 

 greatest distance east of the sun and so 



the 

 on 

 its 



continually growing brighter. Its 

 brightness is eighty-three times that of 

 a first magnitude star on November 1, 

 one hundred and ten times on Novem- 

 ber 30, and no less than one hundred 

 and forty-four times on next January 

 5 when it will attain its greatest bril- 

 liancy. 



Mars may be seen after midnight in 

 the constellation Leo, a little to the left 

 of Regulus. During the month it will 

 move eastward across almost the entire 

 constellation, being found a little way 

 east of Chi Leonis on November 30. 

 Its distance from us diminishes during 

 this interval from one hundred and fif- 

 ty-seven to one hundred and thirty-four 

 millions of miles and its brightness in- 

 creases from seven-tenths to nine- 

 tenths that of a first magnitude star. 

 On November 30 it will be found almost 

 exactly as bright as Aldebaran- 



Jupiter is in excellent position for ob- 

 servation and will remain high in the 

 eastern heavens throughout all the 

 evenings of the month. Especially in- 

 teresting phenomena of its satellites 

 may be seen on the evenings and nights 

 of November 2, 6, 8, 13, 15, 22, 24, 2*] 

 and 29. 



Saturn will be found in the eastern 

 borders of Cancer, a little to the left 



