148 ASTRONOMY FOR 1889, 1890. 



l)ie(;<\ the couclusiou reached being that the heat which the earth re- 

 ceives from the inooii is to that from the sun as 1 is to 184,500, From 

 observations during- the eclipse of January 28, 1888, Mr. Hutchins infers 

 that all but a minute portion of the rays from tlie lunar sod and rock 

 are cut off by our atmospliere, as it seems impossible that a surface 

 like that of the moon, upon which the sun has been shining for many 

 days, should suddenly cease to radiate when the sun's light is with- 

 drawn. 



Mars.— Durin gthe opposition of 1890 Mars again received special 

 attention from the Lick observers. Experiments were tried with colored 

 glasses, with diminished apertures, etc., all with small success. Many 

 photographs were also secured, but none that were jironounced satis- 

 factory. Tlie mystery of the ''canals" is still further increased by the 

 fact that while Professor Holden and Mr. Keeler always saw the canals 

 as dark, broad, somewhat diffused bands, and Mr. Schaeberle saw them 

 in the same way when the seeing was ba.l, but under good condi- 

 tions described them as narrow lines a second of arc or so in width. 

 Un April 12 Mr. Schaeberle saw two of the canals doubled, thereby 

 verifying Professor Schiaparelli's observations. The positions of most 

 of the canals have also been verified by some of the Lick astronomers. 



Jupiter. — Mr. J. E. Keeler pablishes in the monthly notices for No- 

 vember a drawing of Jupiter made with the Lick 36inch on the night of 

 August 28, 1890. The great red spot is described as being of about the 

 same dimensions as in 1889, with a dark shading at its following end, 

 but the middle whiter and the arrangement of belts somewhat different. 

 " It would st>em, on the whole, that the surface features of Jupiter in- 

 dicate less activity in the internal forces of the planet than was man- 

 ifest a year ago." 



Barnard and Burnham have reported a very curious doubling of the 

 first satellite as seen with the 12-inch equatorial of the Lick observ- 

 atory. Of this phenomenon there seems to be but two possible explana- 

 tions : either there is a white belt on the satellite parallel to the belts of 

 Ju|)iter or the satellite is actually double. 



M. Belopolsky has brought out from an examination of drawings of 

 Jupiter a peculiar variation in the time of rotation (first noted by Cas- 

 sini) with the latitude. A velocity of 9'^ 51'" was found in the zone 0° 

 to 5^ in both hemispheres, and a time of rotation of 9'' 55.5'" for the re- 

 mainder of the surface, both hemispheres, except between 5° and 10° 

 of north and south latitude, where the two velocities appear to occur 

 with e(inal fre<iuency. 



Saturn. — A peculiar white spot on the rings of Saturn attracted con- 

 siderable attention in the early part of 1889. This spot Mas first seen 

 by Dr. Terby, of Louvain, on March (>, 1889, who reported it as adjacent 

 to the shadow of the ball and similar to the white spots sometimes seen 

 upon Jupiter; on March 12 it was again seen with an 8 inch Clark tel- 

 escope, but on the 15th, 20th, 22d, and 23d, and on April 2, it was 



