POPULAR ASTRONOMY. 



i73 



dug by the inhabitants of Mars 

 for the purpose of irrigation. When 

 one reads Lowell's works, "Mars and 

 its Canals," and "Mars the Abode of 

 Life," he is ready to believe in the 

 thirty-nine articles of faith enumerated 

 by the author of the books ; there seems 

 to be no other possibility. Mars must 

 be inhabited. If the appearances on 

 Mars are in reality exactly as Lowell 

 describes them, it certainly is very 

 plausible that these are canals on Mars 

 made by engineering" skill. But these 

 canals are very difficult to see, in fact 

 the great majority of astronomers have 

 never seen anything at all like the 

 markings as described by Lowell. 

 Prof. Barnard, the recognized greatest 

 planetary observer of the present day, 

 has never seen anything at all like the 

 canals even with the 36-inch Lick tele- 

 scope or the 40-inch Yerkes. He has 

 seen a wealth of detail on the planet 

 which changes from time with the ad- 

 vance of the Martian seasons. 



Mars undoubtedly seems to have 

 life on it, for there are changes going 

 on that can be explained only under 

 this supposition, it is entirely possible 

 that animal and human life are also to 

 be found there, but the consensus of 

 opinion at the present day seems to be 

 that nothing is proveru-regarding the 

 presence of human beings on Mars. 

 The astronomical world is looking for- 

 ward with the greatest eagerness to 

 the approaching opposition of Mars, 

 when visual observation and photo- 

 graphs will be made in great numbers 

 in an attempt to settle what is, from 

 the popular standpoint, the most im- 

 portant problem in astronomy. 



THE PLANETS. 



A splendid idea of planetary motion 

 can readily be learned if possessors of 

 star maps would plot down on them 

 from day to day the position of Mars. 

 On the first of the month it will be 

 found in the constellation of Pisces 

 about 3 from the visual equinox. It 

 moves easterly each day till the 23rd 

 of the month when it becomes station- 

 ary and then starts to retrograde or 

 move towards the west. The writer 

 would like to urge that the position of 

 Mars be plotted every few days on 

 the map. 



Venus is becoming each night more 

 and more conspicuous, and getting 

 farther and farther east each night but 

 is not shown on the map, as it sets be- 

 fore the hours for which it is arranged 

 this month. Jupiter still continues to 

 be prominent in the evening sky, but 

 is slowly getting farther west each 

 evening. On August 12th, Venus and 

 Jupiter will be very close to each 

 other ; at closest approach Venus will 

 be but 12' north of Jupiter. They will 

 be closest together at 2 A. M. on Aug- 

 ust 12th, but should be watched for 

 several nights before and after this 

 date. A very pretty sight will be in 

 the western sky on August 17th, when 

 Jupiter, Venus and the thin crescent 

 moon will be very close together 

 the moon passing 4 to the south of the 

 planets. Mercury is not well placed 

 to be seen this month. At the middle 

 of August Saturn will be found in 

 Pisces and will rise about 10 P. M. On 

 August 15th Uranus is on the meridian 

 at 9:43 P. M. Neptune is now too 

 close to the sun to be well seen. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



The first comet of the year was dis- 

 covered by Daniel, of Princeton, on the 

 morning of June 15th. Twenty-four 

 hours earlier at Marseilles, France, 

 Borrelly independently discovered the 

 same comet, though the news of the 

 discovery was not made public till 

 after it was announced by Daniel. 

 The comet should therefore be known 

 as the Borrelly-Daniel Comet, or 

 Comet 1909a. This was a small 

 and inconspicuous comet, and could 

 be seen only with a telescope. It 

 had passed its maximum brightness 

 when discovered. It will soon be pos- 

 sible to begin again the search for Hal- 

 ley's Comet, for during the past few 

 months it has been in the direction of 

 the sun. 



THE HEAVENS. 



The chart, as usual, represents the 

 appearance of the heavens at 9 P. M. 

 on the first of the month, 8 P. M. on 

 the 15th, and 7 P. M. on the 31st. The 

 bright star almost overhead is Vega, 

 the star towards which the sun and the 

 solar system are moving at the rate of 

 a million miles a day. 



