SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



7 1 



Conducted by Alice Everett, M.A. 

 (Hon. Secretary of the British Astronomical Association.) 









Position 









Rises. Sets. 



R.A . Dec. 



Sun 



... May 7 



... 4.19 ... 7-30 ... 



2.58 ... 1 6° 



53' N. 





■ 1 21 



... 4.0 ... 7-51 ... 

 Soutlis. 

 P.M. P.M. 



3-53 ■•• 20° 



15' 



Moon 



7 



... 10.51 ... 1.44 



A.M. 



... IO.38 ... I.5O 



A.M. A.M. 







Venus 



11 2 



... 3.14 - 9-5 ••• 



23.50 ... 2° 



0' S. 





11 12 



... 2.56 ... 9.4 .... 



0.29 ... i° 



28' N. 





11 22 



... 2.43 ... 9-5 - 



1.9 - 5° 



12' 



Mars 



11 2 



... 2.24 ... 7.9 ... 



21.53 ... 14 



41' S. 





•1 12 



... 2.1 ... 6.57 ... 



22.20 ... 12° 



2& / 





11 12 



... 1.34 ... 6.44 ... 



P.M. P.M. 



22.47 ... 10° 



5' 



Saturn 



11 1 



... 5.5 ... IO.4O ... 



13.19 ... 5° 



24' S. 





11 21 



... 3.4O ... 9.17 ... 

 A.M. 



13-15 •■• 5° 



0' 



Uranus 



,1 2 



... 7.23 ... 12.5 ... 



14,44 ••• 15° 



28' s. 



Juno 



11 3 



... I2.l8 ... 



Moon. 



15. 1 ... i° 



36' s. 



3rd Qr. 



.. Apr. 28 ... 



3.21 a.m. New ... 



May 5 ... 2.42 p.m. 



1st Qr. 



.. May 12 ... 



6.21 a.m. Full ... May 19 ... 4.43 p.m. 





OCCULTATIONS OF STARS BY THE MOON. 









Angl 



e 



A ngle 







Disappear- fron 



Re-appear- 



from 



Date. 



Star. 



Mag. ance. N. Pi 



ance. 



N.Pt. 



Apr. 29 



k Capricor. 



... 5 3.2 a.m. 53 



... 4.13 a.m 



. 264° 



May 12 



37 Leonis 



... 6 7.55 p.m. 88° 



... 8.51 p.m. 340 



„ 14 



b.a.c. 4043 



... 6J 10.36 p.m. 76° 



... 11.21 p.m. 355 



•1 15 



b.a.c. 4294 



... 6| 11.50 p.m. 120 



... 12.58 a.m. 305 



,1 19 



B.A.C. 5023 



... 6" 2.19 a.m. 46 



... 2.53 a.m. 350 



,, 19 



B.A.C. 5314 



... 6 10.58 p.m. 134 



... 12.14 a.m. 271 



,, 20 



b.a.c. 5347 



... 5 2.20 a.m. 164 



... 2.59 a.m. 223 



The Sun. — There is still a considerable amount 

 of spot activity. 



Mercury. — This planet is too near the Sun to be 

 visible during the month of May. 



Venus is a morning star all the month, in the 

 constellation Pisces. Venus is still low down in 

 the sky, her declination being some 15 less than 

 that of the Sun. 



Mars. — The ruddy planet is a morning star, and 

 will be in conjunction with 8 Capricorni at the end 

 of April, lying only i° 4' to the north of that star. 

 During May Mars will be in the constellation 

 Aquarius, and on May 28th may be seen near the 

 Moon. 



Jupiter is invisible. 



Saturn, the ringed planet, may be seen in the 

 evening in Virginis, about 5 to the north of the 

 bright star, Spica, the position being little changed 

 since last month. Saturn is now well situated for 

 bservation, crossing the meridian about ioh. p.m. 

 at the beginning of May. 



Uranus is near the star k Libras. 



Neptune is invisible. 



Star Diameters. — M. Maurice Hamy in the 

 "Bulletin Astronomique," claims to be able to 

 measure the actual apparent diameters of stars 

 down to o"oi (i.e., the angle the Sun would subtend 

 at the distance of k Centauri), by means of Prof. 

 Michelson's refractometer. The object-glass of 

 the telescope is covered by a screen having two 

 parallel slits, equal and of variable breadth. 



Mont Blanc — During last year, observations 

 were energetically pursued by the enterprising 

 pioneers at the observatory lately constructed on 

 the summit of Mont Blanc. 



The highest Observatory in the world has just 

 been built by Prof. Bailey, on the top of the 

 volcano, El Misti, in Peru. It is an offshoot of 

 the station established by the Harvard College 

 authorities at Arequipa, selected as the finest site for 

 an observatory that could be found in America. 



The Moon and Storms.— In a paper recently 

 read before the French Academy, it was stated that 

 statistics covering three or four years seemed to 

 point to the conclusion that storms occurred most 

 frequently on the first and last days of a lunation 

 (i.e., at New Moon). The writer said, however, 

 that it would be necessary to collect much more 

 information before pronouncing a definite conclu- 

 sion. He suggested that the very small variation 

 in the Earth's distance from the Sun caused by the 

 Moon's attraction, might produce disturbance in 

 the state of electric equilibrium of the atmosphere. 



Full Moon and Clouds. — There is a popular 

 notion, countenanced by Sir J. Herschel, Arago, 

 and Humboldt, that the Full Moon has an effect in 

 breaking up clouds. At a recent meeting of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society, a paper was read 

 by the Rev. S. T. Johnson, who has examined the 

 state of the sky at every Full Moon for the last 

 fifteen years, and found that the Moon has 

 absolutely no effect upon the clouds— a conclusion 

 agreeing with that generally accepted nowadays 

 by astronomers. Mr. Ellis (for forty years assistant 

 at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich) discussed the 

 same question many years ago (Phil. Mag. 1867), by 

 employing the two-hourly Greenwich observations 

 of amount of cloud from 1841-47, and arrived at a 

 similar result. He suggested an explanation of 

 the popular impression. The cloud records indicate 

 a tendency from a more cloudy state by day to a less 

 cloudy state in the evening, with a tendency again 

 to more cloud as night advances. At the time of 

 Full Moon only, this period of clearance corresponds 

 with the time between the Moon's rise and advance 

 to the meridian. Also the clear state of the sky 

 is more likely to attract attention when the Moon 

 is full. 



Another Giant Telescope for Greenwich. — 

 Much has been heard of the magnificent spirit 

 shown in America by private individuals towards 

 furthering the cause of science, but England may 

 now also congratulate herself in this respect. The 

 following is a quotation from a paragraph in "The 

 Observatory " : " Sir Henry Thompson, the eminent 

 surgeon, has offered the magnificent sum of ^5,000 

 to the nation, through the Astronomer Royal, for 

 the purpose of buying a telescope for Greenwich 

 Observatory. It is not often that astronomy finds 

 such a generous patron, on this side of the Atlantic, 

 at least, and, moreover, one who can so well 

 appreciate the exact needs of science at the moment. 

 For Sir H. Thompson, foreseeing that the astronomy 

 of the future is to be photographic, and feeling that 

 England should be well-equipped in this arm. 

 makes it a condition of his gift that the telescope 

 is to be expressly designed for photographic pur- 

 poses. ' ' The instrument is to be of twent y-six inches 

 aperture, just twice that of the telescopes used for 

 the photographic chart of the heavens, and only 

 two inches less than the great twenty-eight-inch just 

 mounted at Greenwich, which is the third largest 

 in the world. 



