44fi 



KNOWLEDGE. 



November, 1910. 



During the past month the seeing has been very fine, and 

 Saturn has been the admiration of man\' astronomers. se\eral 

 of whom say it has never been seen to such advantage. 

 Professor Barnard has discovered several new features of the 

 ring, and on Mount Wilson magnifying powers of six hundred 

 and more have been brought to bear on the planet, and still 

 retain excellent definition. 



The apparent diameters of the outer major and minor axes 

 of the ring system are respective!},- 46" and 13". and we are 

 looking on the Southern surface at an angle of 16°. so that the 

 ring appears open. The diameter of the ball is 18". The 

 ring is visible with a power of about 50. and the belts « ith .i 

 power of (SO. The moon appears near the planet on the 15th. 



Uranus (Nov. 15th. K.A. 1')" Jfi'" ; Dec. S. 22° 7') is 

 unfavourably placed for observation on account of his low 

 altitude. The planet is situated in Sagittarius, in a p.ut of 

 the sky devoid of good reference stars, though the 4tli magni- 

 tude star /; Sagittarii is about 2 to the South. 



The planet sets at 8 p.m. on the 15th. 



Neptune (Nov. 15th, R.A. 7'' 2,2'" : Dec. N. 21" 6') rises 

 about 7.55 p.m., and crosses the meridian at J. 55 a.m. on the 

 15th. The planet is situated about four degrees SouthT-'ast 

 of the star S Gcminoruni. 



Meteors. — The principal meteor showers during the month 

 are the Leonids and .Andromedids : — 



Algol will be at luinimuin on the Jnd at y.3S p.m.. 5th at 

 6.27 p.m.. 25th at S.'i p.m.. and 2,sth at 4.5.S p.m. The period 

 is 2'' 20'' 49'" from which other miniuia ma\' be deduced. 



Telescopic ( )hji-;cts : — 



Double St.\rs. — v Cassiopeiae O'' 43'", N. 57° 17'. m.ags. 

 3t. 7i ; separation 6".2. Binary star. 



\ Arietis l'' 52". N. 25° 6', mags. 4. S ; separation 37". 

 Components white and blue; easy with power 20. 



V Persei 2'' 44"'. N. 55° 2«'. mags. 4. S: separation 2,S". 

 The brighter component is orange, the other blue. There are 

 also se\eral other fainter stars verv near. 



( ; 1 Y A N \ I .S CI I I A 1' A R !{ L L I 



(Born March, 1S35. Died Jlr^. I'ikil 

 Bv W . .\L1"RED PARK. 



Though Astronomy has had to mourn of late the death of 

 many a faithful worker, the name of Gio\anni Schiaparelli 

 amongst them brings home the fact that in him has passed 

 away not only the greatest astronomer of Italy, but one of the 

 greatest astronomers of our times. Great as an observer, he 

 was equally great as a philosophic interpreter of what he saw, 

 for throughout his long life the attainment of scientific truth 

 was ever his highest ideal. E\en at a time when his name 

 became closely associated with one of the most extraordinary 

 telescopic discoveries ever made, he carefully abstained from 

 offering speculative explanations, or entering upon controversies 

 in connection with the novel facts he was the first to present 

 to the scientific world, for with the discovery in 1877 of the 

 now famous Martian "Canals," Schiaparelli certainly opened 

 a new era in observational astronomy. To the popular mind 

 this is perhaps his best known achievement, and by a curious 

 irony of fate the non-committal name of canali, or " channels," 

 which, with his characteristic scientific reserve, he gave to 

 these interesting phenomena, was at once seized upon by an 

 imaginative public to supply the ruddy planet with a complete 

 set of waterways, dug by a longsuffering and famine-stricken 

 populace. The brand-new nomenclature, drawn from ancient 

 classical geography, with which Schiaparelli baptized the 

 Martian markings, was perhaps the only unpopular item in 

 this memorable discovery. 



.A discovery of far greater scientific import was Schiaparelli's 

 announcement of the close connection existing between comets 

 and meteors, a profoundly philosophic piece of work which 

 secured for its author the " Lalande " Prize, and which vastlv 

 extended our knowledge of the constitution of the universe. 

 Scarcely less important has been his work on double-stars, 

 and the rotation-period of Mercury and Venus, while his 

 learned excursions into the domain of ancient astronomical 

 history proved his classical and literary erudition to be on an 

 e(|ual footing with his purely scientific attainments. 



Schiaparelli's student-years were passed at the University 

 of Turin, where he graduated as a civil engineer, but he soon 

 obtained the means to dedicate himself entirely to the .study of 

 astronomy. Through the influence of a friend some years 

 were accordiiiglj- spent at the obscr\atories of Heilin and 



Pulkowa. where he studied under Enckeand W. Struve I'espec- 

 tively, and on returning to Italy the young student found 

 himself, at the early age of twenty-five, elected to the post of 

 second astronomer at the celebrated obser\atory of the Brera, 

 at Milan : on the death of the director of which, (jarlini, in 1862, 

 only two years afterwards, he succeeded to the directorship. 

 This famous institution had been founded as early as 1764 by 

 Boscovich, and was in a somewhat neglected state when 

 Schiaparelli took over the leadership. His own indefatigable 

 actixity, however, both in the astronomical as well as 

 geodetical departments, and the new nineteen inch Merz 

 refractor, for the installation of which in 1886 the Italian 

 Government voted the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand 

 lire, soon restored to the Observatory its former illustrious 

 name — a name still ably upheld by Schiaparelli's successor, 

 Giovanni Celoria. 



Since his resignation on account of failing eyesight, some 

 ten years ago, Schiaparelli, though honorary member of over 

 forty European learned societies, had chosen to lead a com" 

 paratively retired life. Nevertheless, despite his dislike of 

 publicity, he was ever ready to come forward in the cause of 

 scientific truth, and almost his last utterance was contained in 

 a newspaper article which appeared only a few months ago, in 

 the Corrierc del I a Sera, calmly setting forth the ascertained 

 facts in connection with Halley's Comet, by way of protest 

 a.gainst the absurdly fantastic and sensational accounts with 

 which the Italian press was deluged at the time of the comet's 

 near approach to our earth. Throughout a busy life he found 

 time to carry on a voluminous correspondence with most of 

 the great intellects of his time, and it is interesting in this 

 respect to note that Herbert Spencer frequently had occasion 

 thus to consult him on the various mathematical details 

 occurring throughout the Synthetic Philosophy. 



Personal!},'. Schiaparelli added to a grave and dignified 

 bearing extreme courtesy of manner, and the writer of this 

 sketch retains the pleasantest remembrance of an interview 

 enjoyed several years ago, when passing through Milan, and 

 the exquisite kindness with which the great Italian astronomer 

 conducted him, though an entire stranger, over the Brera 

 ( )bser\atorv. 



