The Heavens in January 



BY PROFESSOR ERIC DOOLITTLE, OF THE 

 UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



The year upon which we are just en- 

 tering will be one of great interest to 

 the student of the skies. In the first 

 place, there will be no time of the entire 

 year at which one or more of the bright- 

 est planets may not be seen shining in 



naked eye. In every year the slow 

 progression of the season brings us the 

 successive constellations, each with its 

 wealth of interesting objects for study, 

 but in years less favored than the pres- 

 ent it is not unusual for all of the plan- 

 ets, or "Wandering Stars," to com- 

 pletely desert our evening heavens for a 

 greater or less length of time. 



Figure 1. The Constellations at 9 P. M., January 1. (If facing south, hold the map upright. If facing 

 «ast, hold East below. If facing west, hold West below. If facing north, hold the map inverted. 



the evening heavens, and during the 

 four or six weeks of its close Venus, Ju- 

 piter and Saturn are all presented to 

 our view together. Toward the middle 

 of December, even the little Mercury 

 will run far eastward from the sun, thus 

 increasing to four the number of the 

 bright planets which are visible to the 



But the most remarkable feature of 

 the present year is the very large num- 

 ber of eclipses which will occur within 

 its limits. There will be seven, of which 

 four are of the sun and three are of the 

 moon. It is not possible under any 

 circumstances for more than seven 

 eclipses to occur in any one year. 



