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Saturn. 



By H. J. TOWNSHEND. 



SATURN, during the months of May and June, 1896, pre- 

 sented the appearance of a dull, yellowish, first magnitude, 

 starlike object in our southern heavens, in a region barren of 

 stars to naked-eye vision, about 14 degrees obliquely south of 

 Spica. This wonderful planet is the sixth in order outwards from 

 the sun, but is the second in size of the primary planets. In 

 appearance, to the casual observer, this great globe is reduced to a 

 mere point of light by his enormous distance from the Earth. It 

 is almost incredible that such a tiny point of light should contain 

 within itself a system as vast as it is unique ; but just as the small, 

 dark speck on a microscope slide may be the centre of a complex 

 organism, invisible in all its exquisite structure to the naked eye, 

 but rendered clearly apparent in all its intricate beauty with the 

 aid of a powerful objective, so is that marvellous ringed system of 

 Saturn as seen through a good telescope. 



On May 5th, 1896, at nine hours, Saturn was in opposition, 

 and was then distant from the earth some 825,080,000 miles, being 

 at his nearest approach for the year, and was consequently at his 

 best to be seen and examined, though, unfortunately, low down 

 toward the horizon, and often obscured by clouds and smoke. At 

 the present time, Saturn is practically useless for observational 

 purposes, for our own Earth, in her annual journey around the 

 sun, has reached a point in her orbit about opposite to that where 

 she was on May 5th, 1896, placing Saturn in the position known 

 as " in superior conjunction " — the actual date and time being the 

 13th instant,* at two hours — or, in other words, in a line with the 

 Earth, but beyond the sun ; hence we have increased the distance 

 between us by the diameter of that section of the Earth's orbit, 

 less the difference caused by the elevation of Saturn of 2"io'43*8" 

 above the plane of the Earth's centre. (Here a diagram was 

 referred to, showing the distance for the 13th instant between 

 Earth and Saturn, as taken from the logs of the nautical almanac, 



* This paper was written in November, 1896, and read before the Leeds 

 Astronomical Society. 



