on |>o*ne of t$e 

 gupifer. 



on 



By Rev. W. R. WAUGH, F.R.A.S. 



(Read December 13th, 1900.) 



T is currently believed that the planet Jupiter is the 

 most interesting of the planets which form 

 collectively our Solar system, and this con- 

 viction arises not merely because it is larger 

 bulk for bulk than all the other planets 

 together, justifying its appellation as the 

 " Giant planet of our system," or on account 

 of its attendant five moons, nor of its peculiar 

 semi-sun composition, but chiefly because of 

 the striking and ever-changing markings and 

 spots with which its visible surface is covered, and which form 

 the sole subject of this brief paper. In the present cultured 

 auditory it is hardly necessary to refer to the dimensions or to 

 the rotatory or orbitary motions of the planet further than 

 to recall to memory the few following figures taken from 

 the last published authority of the astronomical constants of 

 Jupiter viz., that its revolution round the sun is accomplished 

 in 1 1 -86 years; that there are considerable irregularities in 

 its orbital motion, owing chiefly to the attractive influence 

 of the planets Saturn and Uranus ; that its rotation on its axis 



