TO KNOW THF STARRY HEAVENS 



97 



of its red color, it is very conspicuous 

 and cannot be mistaken. 



Jupiter may be seen rising almost ex- 

 actly at the east point of the horizon 

 at 9 P. M. on August i and at a 

 few minutes before 7 P. M. on August 



Figure 3. A recent drawint; of the planet Jupiter made 

 with a large telescope. The flattening of the planet at 

 the poles is very evident in this drawing. 



31. Though this world, on the whole, 

 moves eastward among the stars, com- 

 pleting the circuit of the heavens in 

 about twelve years, it is at the present 

 time moving slowly westward or "re- 

 trograding." This retrograde motion 

 will continue until Novemljer 15, when 

 it will be found at a distance equal to 

 seventeen times the apparent diameter 

 of the full moon west of its present po- 

 sition. After this date it will again run 

 rapidly eastward among the stars. 



No planet affords a more interesting 

 subject for study with a small telescope 

 than does this one. Its delicately color- 

 ed bands and its markings, which are 

 continually changing both on accoimt of 

 the great disturbances on this vaporous 

 world and on account of its rapid ro- 

 tation, and its four bright and ever-mov- 

 ing moons form so fascinating an object 

 that one can scarcely tire of watching 

 it. Numerous occultations, transits or 

 eclipses of the moons will be seen to oc- 

 cur during the nights of August 6, 8, 

 15. 22 and 31. 



Saturn is steadily withdrawing from 

 the sun's rays into the morning sky. On 

 August I it rises, but two hours before 

 sunrise, but this time is increased to no 

 less than four and three-fourths hours 

 by the end of the month. It will not be 

 until November, however, that we will 

 see this beautiful planet shining in our 

 evening sky. 



A Sonnet. 



Mysterious nijjht! when our first parent knew 

 Thee from report divine, and heard thy 



name, 

 Did he not tremble for his lovely frame. 

 This glorious canopy of light and blue? 

 Yet "neath a curtain of translucent dew. 

 Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, 

 Hesperus with the Host of Heaven came. 

 And lo! creation widen'd in man's' view. 

 Who could have thought such darkness lay 



conceal'd 

 Within thy beams, O Sun ! or who could find, 

 Whilst fly and leaf and insect stood re- 



veal'd ; 

 That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us 

 blind? 

 Why do we then shun deatli, with anxious 

 strife? 

 If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life? 

 — Joseph Blanco White. 



Dr. Edward F. Bigelow, over at 

 Sound Beach, is trying to buy a tele- 

 scope for ArcAdiA, so we can all look 

 up into the sky and see what is going on 

 so far away. While there is a good deal 

 of room up in the sky for one small spy- 

 glass to look at we hope the Doctor gets 

 his observatory. It is nice to know a lot 

 if you can acquire knowledge by merely 

 looking at it instead of reading and 

 studying, Avhich is hard on the occiput. 

 — "Cos Cob Nature Notes." — New York 

 World. . 



A late report from the Lowell Obser- 

 vatory at Flagstaff, Arizona, states that 

 the only water on Mars is that furnished 

 by the melting snow of the polar ice 

 caps. The equatorial region, therefore, is 

 excessively dry. The latest measure- 

 ment of the amount of oxygen present 

 in the Martian atmosphere show^s it to 

 be about one-half that of the earth's. 



A German naturalist notes that some 

 of the common shore crabs lifted by 

 the shell between thumb and finger and 

 waved in the air, become rigid and are 

 probably hypnotized. 



A recent study by Crocker and 

 Groves of the duration of life in seeds 

 appears to show that death is due to 

 a slow coagulation of the proteins. 

 The rate at wdiich this takes place is 

 the more rapid the higher the temper- 

 ature and the greater the amount of 

 moisture in the seed. One hundred 

 and fifty years seems to be the limit 

 of longevity for the most resistant 

 seeds under the most favorable con- 

 ditions. 



