TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS 



261 



so near us that on January i it will shine 

 with three times, and on January 31, with 

 six times- the brightness of a first magni- 

 tude star. 



Jupiter is still well up in the evening 

 sky on January i, though by the end of 

 the month it will have passed beyond the 

 borders of our map. Saturn is high in 



It may of course be that the writer, 

 a certain Benjamin De Casseres, does 

 not intend this to be taken seriously 

 since he says that the name of the new 

 sun-planet is Nietzsche, but most 

 readers would accept it as a new dis- 

 covery. Professor Eric Doolittle 

 makes this general comment regard- 



Figure 4. Drawings of the planet Mars. The planet is now opposite the sun and 

 therefore now appears fully as in the second drawing. 



the southeast in the constellation Gemini, 

 and dailv approaching nearer the merid- 

 ian. Both of these planets are now in 

 excellent position for observation and 

 study. 



On January 2. at 8 A.]\I.. our earth, 

 in the course of its yearly path, will pass 

 nearest the sun. Our sun will then be 

 more than three millions of miles nearer 

 Us than when the two bodies are farthest 

 separated in July. 



Foolish Astronomy. 



It seems easy to deceive the public 

 along astronomical lines, because the 

 public has so little general knowledge 

 of the subject, but it is strange that a 

 paper of the standing of "The New 

 York Sun" should print such a letter 

 as this from an unknown writer : 



"]\Iy observatory has recorded the 

 presence of an eighth planet. It lies 

 beyond Neptune. It is half sun and 

 half planet. In one hundred years the 

 effect of this giant strayling on the 

 other seven planets will have been so 

 strong that our sidereal system, as we 

 know it to-day, will have passed 

 through tremendous cateclysms. But 

 it will survive. The name of this new 

 sim-planet is Nietzsche." 



ing such astronomical nonsense : 



"There is no foundation for this 

 article. It is absolute foolishness. 

 Who De Casseres is I do not know — I 

 have never heard of him. Many such 

 articles appear from time to time. 

 Newspapers will naturally print al- 

 most any communication in the form 

 of a letter, disclaiming, of course, all 

 responsibility for what the letters may 

 contain. Only yesterday I received a 

 letter from another 'Astronomer' as- 

 suring me that he — or rather she, for 

 it was a woman — had been holding in- 

 teresting talks with the inhabitants of 

 Mars, and ofifering (for a considera- 

 tion) to tell me what they talked about. 

 Such articles are perhaps amusing, but 

 they should deceive nobody with the 

 smallest knowledge of astronomy." 



Silently one by one, in the infinite mea- 

 dows of heaven. 



Blossomed the loveh^ stars, the forget- 

 me-nots of the angels. 



— Lonsrfellow. 



Earth's crammed with heaven. 

 And every common bush afire 

 God. — Mrs. Browning-. 



with 



