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THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



cant region of the Milky Way known as 

 the Northern Coal Sack. But star 

 streams and clouds and other wonderful 

 objects literally fill this beautiful region 

 of the Milky Way. The bright star at 

 H is itself a most interesting sun. Not 

 only do we now see it as the brightest 

 star of the constellation, but it is ap- 



moon, while to those within the narrow 

 strip MNO, the intensely black disc of 

 the moon will appear to move complete- 

 ly on to the bright disc of the sun. 

 Even here, however, the sun's light will 

 at no time be completely cut off ; it will 

 shine out as a brilliant ring encircling 

 the ball of the moon. It is for this 



Figure 2. Regions of the earth from which the eclipse of August 10 is visible. 



proaching our earth at the rate of thirty- 

 six miles a second, and in the course of 

 very many centuries it will have drawn so 

 near us that it will far outshine every 

 other star of the heavens. What kinds 

 of beings they will be who will then be 

 watching the heavens from our little 

 earth we can only conjecture, if indeed 

 our world at that remote epoch will be 

 in such a condition that any life at all 

 wall be possible upon it. 



THE ANNULAR ECLIPSE OF THE 



SUN. 



On the afternoon of August lo the 

 moon will pass between the earth and 

 the sun, but unfortunately the shadow 

 of our satellite will not at that time fall 

 upon any part of the United States. 

 Were there an observer at the point A, 

 Figure 2, he would be the first person 

 on the earth to see the moon's black 

 disc touch the edge of the sun ; while 

 it is from the point B that the last trace 

 of the eclipse will be visible. 



All observers within the region RST 

 V will see the sun partly hidden by the 



reason that eclipses of this kind are 

 called Annular, or Ring, eclipses. 



The present eclipse will begin on Aug- 

 ust lo at 2 hours 56 minutes 6 seconds, 

 P. M. (Eastern standard time) and will 

 end at 8 hours 48 minutes P. M., thus 

 lasting in its entirety almost six hours. 



THE PLANETS IN AUGUST. 



Mercury enters the evening sky on 

 August 14, but does not reach its great- 

 est distance east of the sun until Septem- 

 ber 27. On August 31 it sets about one 

 hour after sunset and may therefore be 

 then detected low in the twilight; but it 

 can be seen to much better advantage 

 four weeks later. 



Venus is practically invisible through- 

 out all of August, as it is lost in the rays 

 of the sun. On August i it rises but 

 forty minutes, and on August 31 but 

 ten minutes before sunrise. 



Mars will be seen rising far in the 

 northeast, four hours before sunrise ; it 

 thus attains a quite high altitude by the 

 time of dawn. It is now of almost ex- 

 actly the same brightness as a first mag- 

 nitude star ; because of this, and because 



