350 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE, 
Uranus rises on the 1st at3 h. 43 m.a.m. On the 31st, at 1h. 44 m. a. 
m. It can only be seen by morning observers. 
Neptune rises on the 1st at 7 h. 15 m. p. m. On the 31st, at 5 h. 14m. 
p. m. 
Our moon begins its monthly course by passing the sun on the 4th, and 
Mercury and Venus on the 5th. On the evening of the 7th it will pass 2° north 
of Antares, the brightest star in Scorpio. On the 17th, at 5 h. a.m., it will 
pass north of Jupiter 7° 1’ of arc, and on the 18th, at 4 h. a.m., it will pass north 
of Saturn 7° 44’ of arc. During the month it occultates 13 stars of the 3d to 6th 
magnitudes. 
AN ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERY. 
Professor E. C. Pickering, director of the Harvard Observatory, lately 
made a discovery which is regarded as one of the most important of the century 
in stellar physics. In the ordinary telescope a star appears as a point of light, 
brighter, but not larger than when looked at with the naked eye. Prof. Picker- 
ing finds that, on placing a prism between the object glass and the eyepiece of 
his telescope, the light of a star is drawn out into a continuous band. When, 
however, the telescope with the prism is directed to a planetary nebula, the light 
is collected into a star-like point without any band, enabling the astronomer to 
distinguish instantly between a star and a planetary nebula. This principle has. 
already enabled Prof. Pickering to discover several planetary nebule. On Thurs- 
day evening, August 26th, an object was observed which presented the appear- 
ance of two star-like points within the band in the modified telescope. It is dif- 
ferent from anything heretofore observed in the telescope, and is regarded as an 
important object for investigation. ( 
THE LIGHT OF JUPITER. 
There has been for some years a discussion as to whether the planet Jupiter 
shines to any perceptible extent by his own intrinsic light, or whether the ilumi- 
nation is altogether derived from the sun. Some facts ascertained from spectro- 
scopic observati n by Prof. Henry Draper, and communicated by him to the 
current number of the American Journal of Science and Arts, seem to point to the 
conclusion that it is not improbable that Jupiter is still hot enough to give out 
light, though perhaps only in a periodic or eruptive manner. Most of the photo- 
graphs hitherto made of the spectrum of Jupiter by Prof. Draper, bear so close a 
resemblance to those of the sun as to indicate that under the ordinary circum- 
stances of observation, almost all the light coming to the earth from Jupiter must 
be merely reflected light originating in the sun. But on one occasion—Sept. 27, 
1879—a spectrum of Jupiter with a comparison spectrum of the moon was 
obtained by him which showed a different state of things. ‘The photograph which 
