70 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[January 1, 188T 



things pithily said, should obscure their goodness and 

 truth under the verbiage of personalities, which disfigure 

 this book even more than his earlier works. 



Messrs. Longmans send us a choicely printed and cheap 

 volume of selections from Jean Ingelow, under the title of 

 Lyrical and Otlier Poems. We are glad to have some old 

 fiivourites in this compendious form. \^e have also on our 

 table Thu Anatomj/ of Negation, by Edgar Saltus (Williams 

 and Norgate) ; The Parental DonH; and Bazaars and 

 Christicmiti/ (Walter Scott) ; Life after Death ? by F. W. 

 Newman (Triibner it Co.) ; Mr. Cole's always instruc- 

 tive Jlicroscojjical Studies ; The Illustrated Handbook of 

 Victoria (Ferres, Melbourne) ; A Froebel Beading Primer, 

 by A. C. Beale (Sonnenschein & Co.) ; The British Almanac 

 and Companion, for 1887 ; The Antiquarian ; The Century 

 Magazine, the most valuable feature of which is the Life of 

 President Lincoln, by " Pike Ballad " Colonel Hay and J. G. 

 Nicolay ; Longmans Magazine, in which Miss Orme fails to 

 meet the powerful arguments of Dr. Eichardson as to the 

 necessity of woman, if she elects to do man's work, resigning 

 the normal functions of maternitv. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY FOR JANUARY. 



S the present quiescent state of the solar surface the 

 sun affords but scant interest to the observer with 

 the telescope. He is in perigee— i.e., the earth is at 

 the nearest point in lier orbit to him— at 8 P.ir. on 

 Januan- 2. Hence at this date his disc is apparently 

 larger than at any other time. The night sky is 

 shown on map i. of " The Stars in their Seasons." 

 Minima of that remarkable variable star Algol ("The 

 .stars in their Seasons," map xii.) will happen at 

 6h. 36m. P.M. on January 1, at llh. L'9m. P.M. on the IStli, at 

 8h. 18m. P.M. on the 21st, and at 5h. 7m. P.M. on the 2tth, and on 

 other dates, when it will be unobservable by the ordinary amateur. 

 Mercury is a morning star throughout January, and is, moreover, so 

 very low down, and so close to the sun towards the end of the 

 month as to be practically invisible. Venus is an e\"ening star. 

 Daring the earlier part of January she is, to all intents and pur- 

 poses, invisible too ; but towards the end of the month, on a 

 perfectly clear evening, she may be caught after sunset glittering 

 above the horizon in the S.W. by W. Mars is absolutely invisible. 

 Jupiter is a morning star. As he does not rise until after 2h. lom. 

 A.M. at the beginning of January, nor until half an hour after 

 midnight on the 31st, he can hardly yet be regarded as an object 

 of observation for the ordinary amateur. Saturn, on the contrary, 

 is admirably placed, coming, as he does, into opposition to the siin 

 at 2 P.M. on the 9 th. He is in fact visible all night long, and 

 during the major part of it is most favourably placed, his meridian 

 altitude in London exceeding CP. The attentive observer will note 

 the slight closing of his ring system, and that the south pole of the 

 planet no longer falls within Cassini's division in the rings. Saturn 

 is in Gemini (" The Stars in their Seasons," map ii.) to the south of 

 Castor and Pollux. Towards the end of the mcmth he will be in the 

 same telescopic field as that well-known double star 3 Geminorum. 

 Uranus, as a morning star, will scarcely come into view for our 

 purpose for the next month or two ; but Neptune continues visible 

 during all the earlier hours of the night. He is situated in a blank 

 part of the sky, a little less than fii° south of the Pleiades (" The 

 Stars in their Seasons," map i.). The moon enters her first quarter 

 20 5 minutes after noon on the 2nd, and is full at lOh. 32-3m. on 

 the night of the 9th. She enters her last quarter at 3h. 22m. P.M. 

 on the IGth, and is new at 3h. 1-lm. in the early morning of the 

 21th. No less than fourteen occultations of fixed stars by the 

 moon will occur at convenient hours for the amateur during the 

 present month, in addition to others during the morning ones. 

 On January 4, n Ceti, a star of the 4th magnitude, will disappear at 

 the moon's dark limb at Sh. 28m. P.M. at an angle of 87' from her 

 vertex. It will reappear at her bright limb at 9h. 33m. P.M. at a 

 vertical angle of 348'. On the 5th / Tauri, another 4th magnitude 

 star, will disappear at the dark limb of the moon at 5h. 21m. P.M. at 

 a vertical angle of 48^, to reappear at her bright limb at 6h. 24 m. 

 P.M. at any angle from her vertex of 293'. On the 6th, 71 Tauri, of 

 the 6th magnitude, will disappear at the dark limb of the moon at 

 6h. 50m. P.M. at an angle of 359° from her vertex. It will reappear 



at 7h. 7m. P.M. at her bright limb at a vertical angle of 334''. Later 

 at 7h. 47m. p.m. fl' Tauri and fl- Tauri, both stars of the 4rth 

 magnitude will disappear at the moon's dark Umb at 7h. 47m. and 

 7h. 54m. p.m. respectively ; the former at an angle of 68°, and the 

 latter at one of 47° from her vertex : fl' Tauri will reappear at 9h. 2m. 

 P.M., and fl- Tauri at 8h. 55m. p.m. at the bright limb ; fl' at a vertical 

 angle of 295'; 9- at one of 310°. Later, the 5th magnitude star 

 B..^.C. 1391 will disappear at the dark limb of the moon at 9h. 2in. 

 P.M. at an angle of 108° from her vertex, reappearing at her bright 

 limb at lOh. 19m. P.M. at an angle from hervertexot 289°. Finally, the 

 most important occultation of all on this prolific night will occur 

 17 minutes after midnight, at which hour .\ldebaran will disappear 

 at the dark limb at a vertical angle of 165°. It will reappear the 

 next morning at Ih. 15m. at the bright limb, at an angle of 283° 

 from the moon's vertex. The student should endeavour particularly 

 to observe this occultation both at the disappearance and reappear- 

 ance of the star, inasmuch as the curious phenomena of projection 

 on the moon's disc, &c., during occultations have been nearly always 

 recorded in connection with this particular one. On the "7th, 115 

 Tauri, a 6th magnitude star, will disappaar at the dark limb at 

 8h. 53m. P.M., at a vertical angle of 95°, reappearing at the bright 

 limb at lOh. 6m. P.M., at an angle of 261° from the moon's vertex. 

 On the 9th, B.A.C. 21.32, of the 6Hh magnitude, will disappear at 

 7h. 6m. P.M., at an angle from the vertex of the moon of 1U6°. It 

 will reappear at 7h. 40m. P.M., at a vertical angle of 175°. The 

 disappearance will in reality occur at the dark limb of the moon, 

 but she will be so nearly full that the effect will be that both limbs 

 will appear to be bright at disappearance as well as at reappear- 

 ance. On the 12th, 45 Leonis, a star of the 6th magnitude, will 

 disappear at the moon's bright limb at 9h. 11m. p.m., at a vertical 

 angle of 83° ; to reappear at her dark limb at 9h. 50m. p.m., at 

 an angle of 171° from her vertex. Later on, p Leonis, a 4th magni- 

 tude star, will disappear at the bright limb at ] Ih. 29m. P.M., at an 

 angle of 61° from the lunar vertex. It will reappear 30 minutes 

 after midnight at the dark limb, at a vertical angle of 199°. 

 Passing over several occultations which happen during the morning 

 hours, we come to the 2Sth, on which date 4 Ceti, a 6th magnitude 

 star, will disappear at the d.ark limb of the moon at 7h. 16m. P.M. at 

 an angle of 179° from her vertex. It will reappear at her bright 

 limb at 8h. 13m. p.m., at an angle from her vertex of 296°. Subse- 

 quently, 5 Ceti, another 6th magnitude star, will disappear at the 

 dark limb at 7h. 42m p.m., at an angle of 196° from her vertex, to 

 reappear at 8h. 26m. P.M. at a vertical angle of 281°. Finally, on 

 the 30th, V Piscium, a star of the 4^th magnitude, will disappear at 

 the moon's dark limb at Oh. 24m. P.M., at a vertical angle of 185°, 

 and will reappear at the bright limb at lOh. 15m. P.M., at an angle 

 of 289° from the vertex of the moon. At noon on January 1 the 

 moon is in Pisces (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxii.) ; and about 

 6 o'clock in the evening she enters the extreme contines of Cetus, 

 whence she re-emerges into Pisces at about the same hour on the 

 2nd. She travels through Pisces until 10 P.M. on the 3rd, when she 

 arrives at the most northerly outlier of Cetus, and again enters that 

 constellation. When she finally quits it at noon on the 4th it is to 

 pass into Aries. Her passage through the last-named constellation 

 occupies her until 4 P.M. on the 5th, at which hour she crosses into 

 Taurus (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxiii.). In her journey across 

 Taurus she arrives at 8 A.M. on the 8th on the boundary of the 

 narrow northern part of Orion. When by 7 o'clock the same 

 evening .she has traversed this, it is to pass into Gemini ("The 

 Seasons Pictured," plate xxiv.). She is travelling across Gemini 

 until 9 A.M. on the lOth, when she crosses into Cancer. It 

 takes her until 7h. 30m. P.M. on the 11th to traverse the last- 

 named constellation, which at that hour she quits for Leo. 

 Here she remains until oh. 30m. A.M. on the 14th, and then enters 

 Virgo (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxv.). Her passage across 

 Virgo occupies until 8h. A.M. on the 17th, when she crosses the 

 boundary into Libra (■' The Seasons Pictured,'' plate xxvi.) In 

 her journey through the constellation last named she arrives, at 3h. 

 .\.M. on the 19th, at the edge of the narrow northern spike of 

 Scorpio. Nine hours and a half later she has passed over this and 

 entered Ophiuchus. She leaves Ophiuchusfor Sagittarius at 7h, A.M. 

 on the 21st, and Sagittarius, in turn, for Capricornus, at Gh. P.M. on 

 the 23rd (" The Seasons Pictured," plate xxi.). She is travelling 

 through Capricornus until 9h. P.M. on the 24th, at which hour she 

 enters Aquarius, a constellation which she never leaves until 

 lOh. P.M. on the 27th ; to pass into Pisces (" The Seasons Pictured," 

 plate xxii.) In her journey through this great straggling constella- 

 tion she (just as at the beginning of the month) passes into a part 

 of Cetus at midnight on the 2Sth, to re-enter Pisces at 2h. ."^ M. on 

 the 30th. At 5h. 30 A.M. on the 31st she also, for the second time 

 this month, re-enters a part of Cetus, to come out in Aries at 

 llh. P.M. on the 31st ("The Seasons Pictured," plate xxiii.). She 

 is, of course, in .Vries when om' notes terminate. 



