POPULAR ASTRONOMY. 



199 



freezes at 40 below zero. A blackened 

 glass plate made horizontal by means 

 of spirit levels was used by Cook and 

 well answered the purpose. 



In a polar dash, the latitude is the 

 important information desired. Lon- 

 gitude i. e., the difference between local 

 and Greenwich time is difficult to ob- 

 tain and inaccurate. Consequently, 

 latitude must be determined by meth- 

 ods which will not involve an accurate 

 knowledge of the time. The sun's 

 greatest altitude during the twenty- 

 four hours would give the time of local 

 noon and latitude from such an obser- 

 vation could be readily determined ; 

 and twelve hours later at midnight the 

 sun's altitude would be least, and lati- 

 tude could again be determined. When 

 the greatest and least altitudes were 

 the same, or in other words, when the 

 sun did not change in altitude at all 

 (except for its change in declination in 

 the sky), then was the latitude 90 , and 

 the north pole was reached. It is readi- 

 ily seen, the small instruments, the 

 difficulty of determining the horizon, 

 and the bitter cold combine together to 

 make the observations of no great ac- 

 curacy. Under such conditions it is 

 questionable whether the position of 

 the pole could be determined within 

 ten miles ! 



After making so many carefully 

 planned voyages to the north and after 

 the many years of diligent work look- 

 ing towards the climax of his life in the 

 discovery of the pole, it does seem that 

 the honor of being first to the top of 

 the world should belong to Peary. It 

 was Peary's accurate observations that 

 paved the way for Cook's success, but 

 it will be very difficult for Peary to 

 prove that he himself was the first to 

 reach the pole. In this conviction it 

 may be said that a polar expedition 

 would give the freest possible rein to 

 an explorer willing to sacrifice his per- 

 sonal honesty to the desire of winning 

 fame, and the applause of the world. 

 Such a traveller could readily fix up his 

 observations, adding a few miles and 

 a few minutes of arc each day, and if 

 skilfully done there would not be the 

 slightest possible danger of detection. 

 But we cannot imagine a scientist capa- 

 ble of so demeaning himself to gain a 

 few short weeks or months of popular- 



ity, for an accident might happen, the 

 deceit might be detected, and he would 

 then go down to posterity as the great- 

 est liar of the ages. Cook's veracity 

 has been sadly impeached, but when 

 his whole story can be told and his 

 observations examined, he will be 

 abundantly able to verify his claim that 

 he was the first to reach the pole. In 

 all scientific work it is generally the 

 date of the announcement which counts 

 for priority, and as Cook and Peary 

 made their claims within five days of 

 each other the honor of discovering 

 the North Pole must necessarily be a 

 divided one. 



THE PLANETS. 



Remarkably little is heard regarding 

 our near neighbor in space Mars. This 

 is undoubtedly due to the poor weather 

 conditions that have been met with 

 generally throughout Europe and in 

 general throughout our own country. 

 For some reason very little detail seems 

 to be present on Mars. It is now past 

 its nearest approach to the earth which 

 occurred September 15. It increases 

 its distance very slowly, and in Sep- 

 tember and October are • usually the 

 months of finest seeing at our obser- 

 vatories, we may expect important dis- 

 coveries in the near future. Mars con- 

 tinues to retrograde till October 2j, 

 when it becomes stationary. A close 

 approach of Mars and the moon occurs 

 on September 30, and again on October 

 25. These will have an added interest 

 coming so near the times of the Har- 

 vest and Hunter's full moons. Saturn 

 is readily located from its position a 

 little east of Mars. Venus is becoming 

 nightly more conspicuous, slowly 

 drawing farther away from the Sun. 



THE CONSTELLATIONS. 



As usual the chart shows the sky as 

 it appears at 9 P. M., on the first of the 

 month, at 8 o'clock on the 15th and at 

 7 P. M. at the end. It shows probably 

 the most barren starry region in the 

 whole heavens. The four planets, 

 Venus, Uranus, Mars and Saturn, how- 

 ever, and fine clear autumn nights 

 make the skies most interesting, and 

 the interest is increased as we watch a 

 few hours later the splendid winter 

 constellations rising high over the 

 western horizon. 



