52 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Jupiter is becoming- a conspicuous and 

 beautiful object in the morning heavens. 

 On July I, it rises about four hours be- 

 fore sunrise, but by July 31 it rises before 

 midnight. This planet will be the reign- 

 ing object of our evening heavens during 

 the coming autumn and winter months. 



Saturn is in conjunction with the sun 

 on July 12, and so cannot be observed 

 during the present month. 



at the point where the moon passes 

 through it. The center of the moon will 

 reach the point A, and the eclipse begin, 

 at 10 hrs. 19 min. 18 sees. P. M. (East- 

 ern Standard Time) ; it will reach the 

 point C, and the eclipse be the greatest, 

 at 1 1 hrs. 45 min. 54 sees. ; and it will 

 finally reach the position B, and the 

 eclipse terminate, on July 15, at i hr. 12 

 min. 30 sees. A. M. The moon will thus 



Figure 3. The path across Australia of the Central Eclipse of the sun, July 29, 1916. 



On July 3, at 3 A.M., the earth will 

 pass through the point of its orbit which 

 is farthest distant from the sun ; on this 

 date we will be more than three million 

 miles farther away from the sun than 

 when the two bodies were closest to- 

 gether, six months ago. 



The Eclipse of the Moon. 



On the late evening of July 14, our 

 moon in its eastward monthly journey 

 among the stars will pass into the earth's 

 shadow and a large part of its light will 

 be cut ofif. The great shadow of the earth 

 stretches out into space directly away 

 from the sun, the extreme tip of the 

 shadow being no less than eight hundred 

 and fifty-seven thousand miles away 

 from us. This length is, of course, far 

 too small to reach to the stars or to any 

 of the planets, but as the distance of the 

 moon is but two hundred and forty thous- 

 and miles, it follows that sometimes the 

 moon plunges into the shadow and is 

 eclipsed. 



In Figure 2, the large, shaded circle 

 represents a section of the earth's shadow 



at no time be wholly covered ; it is prob- 

 able that even the portion wholly within 

 the sliadow will not become entirely dark. 

 Instead, the observer will probably see 

 areas of illumination on the dark ball 

 of our satellite which may vary from 

 copper color to greenish, or may even in 

 part be of a deep red. These changing 

 colors during the progress of an eclipse 

 afford a most interesting sight. They are 

 due to rays of sunlight which have passed 

 through the rim of air surrounding the 

 earth, and which have thus become so 

 bent within the shadow that they fall 

 upon the darkened moon. To an observ- 

 er on the moon at this time the "New" 

 earth would be seen as a black ball, sur- 

 rounded by a brightly colored rim of 

 light. Sometimes during an eclipse the 

 rim of air about the earth has been filled 

 with clouds so that no light could pene- 

 trate it and the moon has therefore en- 

 tirely disappeared, but this is very un- 

 usual. 



The Annular Eclipse of July 29. 



On the evening" of July 29, the moon 



