592 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
ation 19°, this makes an elevation of 70° from our southern horizon, or 20° south 
of our zenith. Referred to the stars, its position will be in the constellation Tau- 
rus, midway between and in line with the Pleiades and Hyades, two beautiful 
groups of small stars in this constellation ; the principal stars of the latter are 
arranged in the form of the letter V, one extremity of the V being formed by 
Aldebaran, a red star ranked as of the first magnitude, but not so bright as some 
others. The Pleiades, or "seven stars," as the group is commonly called, is 
about 10° farther west. Really .there are only six stars in the group clearly vis- 
ible to ordinary eyes, and an eye which is good enough to see seven will be very 
likely to see four others, or eleven in all. A telescope of two inches aperture 
will show 120. Being elevated high above the horizon, this month will be a 
very favorable time for the most refined and delicate observations of this planet. 
It is to the rings that most of the interest of this planet attaches, the southern 
surfaces are opened out full to the view, the earth having nearly attained its max- 
imum elevation above the ring plane. We may well imagine how sorely puzzled 
the earlier observers, with their very imperfect telescopes, were, by these strange 
appendages. The planet at first was supposed to resemble a vase; hence the 
name Ansse, or handles, given to the rings in certain positions of the planet. 
It was next supposed to consist of three bodies, the largest one in the middle. 
The true nature of the rings was discovered by Huyghens in 1655. 
There is nothing more encouraging in the history of astronomy than the 
way in which eye and mind have bridged over the tremendous gap which sepa- 
rates us from this planet. By degrees the fact that the appearance was due to a 
ring was determined ; then a separation was noticed dividing the rings into two ; 
the extreme thinness of the ring came out next, when Sir William Herschel ob- 
served the satellites "like pearls strung on a silver thread," then an American 
astronomer discovered that the number of rings must be multiplied we know not 
how many fold. Next followed the making out of the transparent ring by Dawes 
and Bond, in 1852; then the transparent ring was discovered to be divided as 
the whole system had once been thought to be ; last of all comes evidence that 
the smaller divisions in the various rings are subject to change, and that the 
ring-system itself is probably increasing in breadth, and approaching the planet. 
The breadth of the entire system is 37,570 miles. In spite of this enormous 
breadth, the thickness is not supposed to exceed 100 miles. Of what, then, are 
these rings composed ? There is great reason for believing that they are neither 
solid nor liquid; and the idea now generally accepted is that they are composed 
of myriads of satellites, or little bodies, moving independently, each in its own 
orbit, around the planet; giving rise to the appearance of a bright ring when they 
are closely packed together, and a very dim one when they are most scattered. 
In this way we may account for the varying brightness of the different parts, and 
the haziness on both sides of the ring near the planet, which is supposed to be 
due to the bodies being drawn out of the ring by the attraction of the planet. 
Although this planet appears to resemble Jupiter m its atmospheric conditions, 
unlike that planet, and like our own Earth, its year, owing to the great inclina 
