I70 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



one of the most interesting of all the 

 worlds of our sun's family. During the 

 present month it is not only in good 

 position or observation but it happens 

 to be so near a moderately bright star 

 that it can be found with less difficulty 

 than usual. And on October i6 the 



glass, appearing as a greenish star of 

 the sixth magnitude. 



Though this distant world is so large 

 it is far less dense than our earth and is 

 indeed almost certainly in a vaporous 

 condition. Long ages must pass before 

 it can become a cold and solid world. 



EAST 



Fig. 4. Passage of Uranus and a star behind the moon on the evening of October 1( 



planet will be occulted by the moon. 

 On all of these accounts therefore, the 

 possessor of a small telescope should 

 not fail to search for this most interest- 

 ig object. 



Uranus moves steadily along the 

 path A V B, Figure i, completing the 

 entire circuit of the heavens in eighty- 

 four years. It is now in Capricornus, 

 far below the celestial equator and 

 therefore cannot rise very high in our 

 southern skies, but for the past ten 

 years it has been slowly climbing up- 

 ward and in the course of thirty-two 

 years more it will reach the Summer 

 Solstice, near B, Fig. i, and will then 

 be in its highest position in the heavens. 



The planet is now exactly 3 minutes 

 33 seconds west of the star at C, and 21 

 minutes 45 seconds south of it. In Fig. 

 3 all of the faint stars near C are shown. 

 The faintest of these will probably not 

 be visible in a telescope of but two or 

 three inches aperture, unless the air at 

 this low altitude is unusually clear, but 

 Uranus will be visible in the smallest 



It has a system of four beautiful moons 

 whose paths among the stars are al- 

 most perpendicular to the path of the 

 sun as seen from Uranus. It is very 

 probable that the axis about which the 

 planet turns thus lies in the plane of the 

 orbit, a very strange position wholly 

 unlike that of any of the other planets 

 of our Solar System. Were the axis 

 of our earth in a similar position the 

 sun would be at some times nearly ver- 

 tically above the north pole of the 

 earth ; six months later it would be ver- 

 tically above the south pole, and not 

 only the north pole, but nearly the 

 whole northern hemisphere, would be 

 in complete darkness. 



Thus at some time during each year 

 every part of the earth would be sub- 

 jected to a tropical heat ; at another 

 time, six months later, it \vould be 

 without sunlight, — or a frigid zone. 

 The wind motions and the character of 

 the seasons would thus be exceedingly 

 intricate and unlike those we now 

 enjoy. 



