TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS 



235 



dow path on this day, for a total 

 eclipse of the sun is the most impres- 

 sive heavenly phenomenon that can 

 ever be witnessed by us. 



Two other eclipses will also occur 

 during the present year. The first is 

 a very small partial eclipse of the moon, 

 only one-eighth of the moon's diameter 

 being immersed in the earth's shadow. 

 This eclipse will take place shortly be- 

 fore sunrise on the morning of June 

 24. The third eclipse, on December 31, 

 is a so-called annular eclipse of the sun, 

 totally invisible to us, and visible only 

 from stations in South America and in 

 western and southern Africa. 



The motion of our moon among the 

 stars in the course of its monthly cir- 

 cuit of the heavens is a less striking 

 phenomenon but yet a most interesting 

 subject for study. A very little obser- 

 vation will show that our satellite 

 moves eastward a distance approxi- 

 mately equal to its own diameter in the 

 course of one hour, and that this 

 changes its position in the heavens 

 about thirteen degrees each day. The 

 careful observer will also discover that 

 it does not follow exactly the same 

 path on successive months. Thus 

 while the moon passes below the Plei- 

 ades on January 21, February 17, 

 March 16, etc., during the present year, 

 he will notice that on each successive 

 passage its path among the stars lies 

 lower, the displacement amounting to 

 no less than three times the apparent 

 diameter of the moon in the course of 

 the year. 



On various evenings the moon will 

 be seen to pass over, or "occult," many 

 different stars, but there will be occa- 

 sions when a planet will be seen to be 

 thus hidden during the present year; 

 only two planetary occulations will 

 take place. On August 3 the moon 

 will occult Jupiter and on October 9 

 it will pass over Mars, but neither of 

 these interesting phenomena can be 

 viewed from stations within the United 

 States. 



The members, of whom there are now 

 about eighty, are largely amateurs. A 

 few of them own or nave access to fair 

 sized telescopes, five inches and above. 

 Others have only two- and three-inch 

 glasses, while not a few depend on their 

 unaided eyes or use nothing more pow- 

 erful than held and bird glasses. 



The object of the Society is to set 

 the largest possible number of amateur 

 observers to watching individual vari- 

 ables and recording carefully the 

 brightness of each. The records are 

 then turned in to the secretary 01 the 

 Association and to Harvard Observa- 

 tory, where they are brought together 

 and plotted. Immediately afterwards, 

 they are published in "Popular Astron- 

 omy." The result is a vastly greater 

 body of fact than any observatory staff 

 would be able to discover. 



Variable stars are the one great mys- 

 tery of the heavens still unsolved. Save 

 for the "Algol type" in which a dark 

 companion revolves around the bright 

 star and periodically shuts off a part 

 of its light, there is no satisfactory ex- 

 planation of variable stars. Omicron 

 Ceti or Mira, several times mentioned 

 in the astronomical columns of this 

 journal, is still as wonderful and al- 

 most as much an egima as when, in 

 1596, it ws first discovered to be varia- 

 ble. 



But the only way to solve any puzzle 

 which nature sets us is by getting facts. 

 And facts concerning variable stars 

 seem to be about the only sort of facts 

 concerning the heavenly bodies which 

 the amateur of astronomy has it in his 

 power to contribute to the advance of 

 scientific knowledge. 



The secretary of the society is Mr. 

 William Tyler Olcott, 64 Church 

 Street, Norwich, Connecticut. 



An Unsolved Problem. 

 The American Association of Vari- 

 able Star Observers (it is the stars that 

 are variable, not the observers) met on 

 November tenth, at the Harvard Ob- 

 servatory, and adopted a formal organi- 

 zation in place of the loose tie that had 

 held them heretofore. 



Not Elephantine! 



They were discussing that joke about 

 getting down off an elephant. 



"How do you get down?" asked the 

 jokesmith for the fourth time. 



"You climb down." 



"Wrong!" 

 "You grease his sides and slide down." 



"Wrong! !" 



"You take a ladder and get down." 



"Wrong! ! !" 



"Well, you take the trunk line down." 



"No, not quite. You don't get down 

 off an elephant ; you get it off a goose." — 

 Indianapolis News. 



