290 



THE GUIDE TO XATl'RE 



country appear as a partial eclipse only. 

 Finally, if the observer is north of the 

 line R S T the moon will be lowered so 

 far in the heavens that it will pass com- 

 pletely below the sun. To such ob- 

 servers the eclipse will be wholly in- 

 visible. 



Observers within the United States 

 can estimate the times at which the 

 eclipse begins and ends at their sta- 

 tions by the help of Figure 3. The 



Figure 4. Path of the n-oon across the sun as 

 viewed from Philadelphia on the morning of February 

 3rd. 



lines running from right to left indi- 

 cate the times of beginning and the 

 vertical lines the time of ending. By 

 measuring the proportional distances 

 from his location to the two adjacent 

 lines in each case he can find the times 

 within two or three minutes. 



For example, at Philadelphia we 

 f^nd:— 



Edge of moon first touches edge of 

 sun and eclipse begins (first contact) 

 10 hrs. 15 min. A. M. 



Edge of moon passes ofif edge of sun 

 (last contact) 12 hrs. 27 min, P. M. 



The appearance of the eclipse as 

 seen from Philadelphia is shown in 

 Figure 4. The eclipse will begin when 

 the moon's center is at A and end when 

 this is at B, the greatest obscuration 

 will occur when our satellite has reach- 

 ed the position C. Observers in the 

 northern part of our country will see 

 less of the sun covered than is here 

 show^n, while to those in the southern 

 states the obscuration will be greater. 

 From no point within the United 

 States will the eclipse be total, but 

 from all points it will be visible^ as a 

 more or less striking partial eclipse. 



The Planets in February. 



Mercury will come into conjunction 

 with the sun and enter the morning 

 sky on February 5. It reaches western 

 elong-ation on March i and for the last 



few days of February may be seen 

 shining brightly in the southeast for 

 more than an hour before sunrise. 



V'enus, Jupiter and Saturn all shine 

 brightly in the evening sky in excellent 

 position for observation. 



Mars is running rapidly westward 

 and during the month will pass from 

 Eeo into Cancer. Its nearest approach 

 to the earth of the entire year will oc- 

 cur on February 9, at 6 A. M. at which 

 time it will be but sixty million miles 

 awav from us. 



Why February is the Shortest Month. 



In all the earliest calendars the 

 month was the number of days in one 

 lunation, — that is, from full moon to 

 full moon or from new to new. As it 

 is impossible to fit an exact number of 

 such months into a year it was neces- 

 sary to arbitrarily add or drop a lunar 

 month from the calendar from time to 

 time. 



The resulting inextricable confusion 

 was first remedied in B. C. 45 by Julius 

 Caesar, who wholly discarded the 

 moon from the calendar, adopting 365- 

 y^ days as the length of the year, the 

 extra quarter of a day being readily al- 

 lowed for by making each fourth year 

 366 days. February at this time con- 

 tained thirty days and our seventh 

 month also thirty days ; Caesar named 

 the latter July, after himself, and that 

 it might be as long as any other month 

 he transferred to it a day from Febru- 

 ary, leaving the latter with but twenty- 

 nine. 



His successor, Augustus Caesar, in 

 like manner took possession of the fol- 

 lowing month, naming it August, and 

 that it also might be as long as any 

 month, he borrowed still another day 

 from February to add to his own 

 month leaving the former month with 

 but twenty-eight days. 



In the present year, however, Febru- 

 ary will contain twenty-nine days as 

 191 6 is a leap year. 



