SCIENCE-GOSSW 



79 



CONDUCTED BY FRANK C. DENNETT. 



August, 



Moon 



Mercury... lo 



Rises, 

 h.in. 



4.40 a in. 

 4-56 

 5.12 



Rises. 

 6.g a m. 



.Sets, 

 h.m. 

 .. 7.:!0 p.m. 

 .. 7.10 

 .. 6.4y 



Souths. 

 1. 13 p.m. 



Position at Noon. 

 R.A. 



Dec. 

 15° 21' K. 



... 12'^ 12' 

 ... 8° 44' 



6.17 p.m. ...10.16 

 8.48 ... 4.42 a.m. 



Venus 



Mars 



30 



Jupiter ... 20 

 Saturn ... 20 

 Uranus ... 20 



Neptune ... 20 



Souths, 

 h.m. 



0.44 p.m. 

 I. II 

 1.26 



0.41 p.m. 

 0.49 

 0.55 



6.21 a.m. 

 6.6 



5-51 



II. 41 a.m. 

 4.49 p.m 

 5.15 p.m 

 7.20 a.m 



Semi 

 Diameter. 

 ... 2" 5 

 ... 2" 6 

 ... 2" 9 

 ... 4" 9 

 ... 5" o 

 ... 5" I 

 ... 4" 2 

 ... 4" 4 

 ... 4" 6 

 ...14" 3 

 ... /' 6 



h.m. 

 9-23 



lO.O 



10.37 



Sets. 

 . 7.56 p.m. 

 . 1.6 a.m. 

 1. 19 p.m. 



Position at Noon. 

 R.A. 



h.m. 



10.4 ... 



11.9 ... 



12.2 ... 



9 59 - 



10.46 .. 



11.32 ... 



3-38 •• 



4.3 ... 



4.27 ... 



9.38 .. 



14-47 •• 



15-13 - 



5.17 .. 



Dec. 

 i3°33'N. 



6^ 13' 



0° 58' S. 

 13° 49' N. 



2t' 



19' 



28' 



2' N. 



27' 



36' 

 14° 55' N. 

 13° 48' s. 

 17° 41' S. 

 21" 14' N. 



Moon's Phases. 



Last Qr. . 

 New 

 istQr. . 



Aug. I 



M 9 



>. 15 



6.34 p.m. 

 5.2 a.m. 

 9.2 p.m. 



Full ... Aug. 23 ... 7.4 a.m 

 LastQr. ,, 31 ...10.55 a.m 



The Sun still shows small disturbances only 

 upon his disc. 



Meteors should be specially looked for August 

 3- 5. 7~i3' ^5> 19-22, notably on those nights 

 during the earlier half of the month. 



Meteor. — Mr. Geo. H. Knowles writes from 

 South Hornsey : "I observed a meteor on the 5th 

 July, at 12 o'clock, p.m., travelling from south to 

 south-east, at splendid brilliance." 



During August the whole of the planets are 

 poorly placed for useful observation. Mars rises 

 about eleven on the ist, and before ten at the end 

 of the month, but still displays a very small 

 angular diameter. 



Star Eclipsed by a Comet. — Since our last 

 number was in the press we have found in the 

 Astronomische Nachrichten that Signer Cacciatore, 

 of the Palermo Observatory, on the evening of 

 August 7th, 1864, saw an 8-magnitude star eclipsed 

 by the nucleus of Comet I. of that year. 



Lunar Eclipse. — On August 23rd, the Moon 

 comes into contact with the penumbra, at 4.S a.m., 

 the first contact with the shadow being at 5.24. 

 As the Moon sets at 4.58 at Greenwich, all that 

 can possibly be seen there will be the faint shading 

 on the disc due to the penumbra. In the western 

 portions of Ireland, however, the contact with the 

 shadow will occur just before the moon sets. The 

 eclipse is a partial one, its magnitude, taking the 

 Moon's diameter to equal i, will be represented 

 as = o 73. 



Occultation of Jupiter, June 14TH. — Very 

 many observers .saw the disappearance of the 

 planet, also of his four satellites, behind the dark 

 portion of the moon which was readily visible 

 by the earth-shin'e, or, to use scientific language, 

 lumiere cendrce. Speaking generally, the observers 

 seem to have witnessed no phenomena that could 

 have been due to the refraction of the very slight 

 lunar atmosphere, the belts being visible across 

 the planet right up to the moon's limb. 



Variable Stars. — Some time since the Rev. 

 T. E. Espin prepared, and very kindly forwarded 

 to the writer, a list of objects of this class, mostly 

 visible to the naked eye. This list is proving 

 most useful in the preparation of our monthly 

 table. Those in good position for August are given 

 below. 



R.A . Magnitude, 



h. m. S. Dec. Max. Min. Period. 



24 R.Cephei* 20.23 •-• 88° 44' ... 5 ... 11 

 Pxxi, 285 ,, 21.39 ... 58° II' ... 4 .-. 6'5 

 5 ,, 22-24 ... 57° 45' •-- 37 ■■■ 4'9---5d.8h.47m.39S. 



V Cygni ... 19.52 ... 34° 4/ ... 4'5--- 67 

 63 ,, + ... 21. 1 ... 47° 2' ... 5 ... 6 



* Sir W. Herschel's famous "Garnet Sidus." 



■f Variable also in colour, yellowish to orange-red. 



Brooks' Comet, discovered i88g, returns to its 

 perihelion about the end of August, or a little 

 later. As we write, it is travelling through the 

 southern part of Aquarius. It was observed by 

 M. Javelle, at Nice, with the 30-inch refractor, on 

 June 20th, in R.A. 22h. 25m. 30s., S. Dec. 18' 33' 59", 

 since which it has slowly moved eastward. Mr. .A. 

 C. D. Crommelin writes from the Royal Observa- 

 tory, Greenwich, that on August ist the comet 

 should be in R.A. 22h. 37m. 59s., S. Dec. iS" 32'. 

 " The brightness on August ist will be double that 

 on June 20th," when discovered at Nice. 



Driving-Clock for Equatorial Telescopes. — 

 Messrs. Home and Thornthwaite have put on the 

 market a neat and at the same time efficient piece 

 of apparatus for driving instruments of moderate 

 aperture. A tangent screw is acted on by a weight, 

 whilst clockwork controls its speed of revolution. 

 Mr. Overstall, the inventor, is to be congratulated 

 in introducing so useful an attachment. Clock- 

 work so much simplifies the employment of the 

 micrometer and the spectroscope ; indeed, much 

 work of this class is absolutely out of the question 

 without it. 



The total eclipse of the Sun on August gth is 

 visible along a line stretching from northern 

 Norway, across Nova Zembla, Siberia, Manchuria, 

 to northern Japan. .\t Greenwich the eclipse is 

 totally invisible, but in Scotland, at sunrise, the 

 end of the eclipse may be observed. Extensive 

 preparations are, of course, being made to observe 

 the phenomenon at various points along the line 

 of totality. Many of our English observers will 

 be stationed at Vadso, in Norway, situate about 

 E. long. 30^ N. lat. 70' 10'. Endeavours will be 

 made both to draw and to photograph the corona. 

 Likewise the spectrum will be observed, all being 

 well, directly, and also photographed, both with 

 and without a slit. A little time since, Mr. D. E. 

 Packer, of Birmingham, was telling us about 

 photographs of the corona taken with a pin-hole 

 camera on a photographic plate covered with lead- 

 foil, and without "an eclipse. It is to be hoped 

 that on August 9th he will be enabled to take some 

 of these photographs to compare with those taken 

 by the eclipse observers. 



