2S2 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



CONDUCTED BY FRANK C. DENNETT. 







Position at Noon. 





1S99. Rises. Sets. 



R.A. 







Feb. h.m. h.m. 



h.m. 



Dec. 



Sun 



6 ... 7.32 a.m. ... 4.56 p.m. . 



.21.20 .. 



15° 35' S. 





16 ... 7.13 ... 5.15 



.21.59 •• 



I2 3 IS' 





26 ... 6.54 ... 5-32 



.22.38 .. 



. S° 41' 





Rises. Soutlis. 



Sets. A 



ge at Noon. 



Feb 



h.m. h.m. h 



m. 



d. h. vi. 



MoOU 6 



... 4.30 a.m. ... 8.15 a.m. ... 



1 p.m. 



25 13 10 



16 



... 9 16 ... 5.22 p.m. ... 



30 a.m. 



6 2 28 



26 



... 7.4 p.m. ... 0.24 a.m. ... 6 



40 



16 2 28 







Posit i 



on at Noon. 





Souths. Semi 



R.A. 







Feb. h.m. Diameter. 



h.m. 



Dec. 



Mercury 



6 ... 11. 15 a.m. ... 2" 5 



.. 20.21 . 



. 21° II' S. 





16 ... 11.43 ••• 2" 4 



.. 21.28 . 



. 17" 9' 





26 ... 12 p.m. ... 2" 4 



.. 22.37 • 



. 10° 48' 



Venus 



6 ... 8. 58 a.m. ... 13" 1 



.. 18.4 . 



. 19° 43' S. 





16 ... 9.1 ... 11" 7 



.. 18.47 • 



. 20° 0' 





26 ... 9.7 ... 10" 6 



.. 19-32 . 



. 19° 32' 



Mars 



6 ... 10.31 p.m. ... 6" 7 



• ■ 7-39 ■ 



- 25° 49/ N. 





16 ... 9.43 ... 6" 2 . 



.. 7-30 • 



• 25 55' 





26 ... 9.0 ... 5" 7 



.. 7-26 . 



- 25° 43' 



Jupiter . 



.. 16 ... 4.49 a.m. ... 18" 



■ - 14-33 - 



• 13= 57' S. 



Saturn 



.. 16 ... 7.41 a.m. ... 7" 4 



.. 17.26 . 



. 21° 49' S. 



Uranus . 



.. 16 ... 6.40 a.m. ... 1" 7 



.. 16.24 . 



. 21° 30' S. 



Neptune . 



.. 16 ... 7.39 p.m. ... 1" 3 



Moon's Phases 



.. 5-26 . 



. 21° 54' N. 





h.m. 





h.m. 



3rd Qr. .. 



Feb. 5 ... 4.7 a.m. New ... 



Feb. 11 



... 7.53 p.m. 



istQr. ... 



,, 19 ... 3.24 a.m. Full ... 



,, 27 



... 6.18 a.m. 



Jupiter* 



. 11 a.m. . 



.. planet 



5° 55' 



N. 



Saturn* 



9 a.m. . 



» 



2° 53' 



N. 



Venust 



1 a.m. . 



n 



4° 18' 



N. 



Mercury" . 



1 p.m. . 



,, 



4° 37' 



S. 



Mars' 



. 5 P-m. . 



.. 



5° 5' 



N. 



In perigee February 9th, at 10 p.m., distant 225,100 

 miles ; and in apogee on 21st, at 7 p.m., distant 

 251,600 miles. 



Conjunctions of Planets with the Moon. 



Feb. 3 • 



6 



7 



9 



21 



* Daylight. f Below English horizon. 



Occultation and Near Approach : 



Dis- Angle Re- Angle 



Magni- appears. from appears, from 



Feb. Star. tucte. h.m. Vertex, h.m. Vertex. 



12 ... 19 Piscium ... 5 ... 7.35 p.m. ... 39" ... 8.28 p.m. ... i9°6 



19 ... 1 Geminorum 4 ...11.26 p.m. ...152 3 ... Near approach 



The Sun usually has some spots visible on his 

 surface. During 1898 observations were made by 

 the writer on 273 days, not any spots being seen 

 on' forty-six days. 



Mercury is poorly placed for observation from 

 its low southern declination. It is a morning star 

 at the beginning of the month, and at 3 p.m. on 

 the 27th is in superior conjunction with the sun. 



Venus is a morning star, reaching her greatest 

 elongation west (46 46') at 7 a.m. on the nth. 

 It is, like Mercury, poorly placed for observation. 



Mars is still in good position, though his 

 diameter is fast decreasing. He is situated in the 

 constellation Cancer, and is above the horizon all 

 the working hours, an interval of about seventeen 

 and a-quarter hours separating his rising and 

 setting. 



Jupiter is a morning star, situated not far from 

 a Librae, rising about 51m. a.m. on the 1st, and 

 just after n p.m. on the 28th. 



Saturn and Uranus are morning stars, situated 

 in the southern part of the constellation Ophin- 



chus. Saturn's path is closely south of the place 

 occupied by Kepler's Temporary Star of 1604. 

 On tne 28th, Saturn does not rise until 2.53 a.m. 



Neptune is still in good position for observation, 

 not far from £ Tauri. 



Meteors may be looked for February 3rd, 7th, 

 10th, and 15th to 20th. These last are swift, 

 streak-leaving meteors, radiating from a point a 

 little north of a Serpentis. 



New Minor Planets. — Mr. Coddington has 

 found two new minor planets registered on photo- 

 graphic plates exposed on October 14th, 1898, at 

 the Lick Observatory. M. Charlois, ot Nice, also 

 discovered one on December Sth. 



H. W. Vogel, Professor of Photography, 

 Photo-chemistry and Spectroscopy at the Berlin 

 Technical High School, has passed away. He 

 was born in 1834, arj d devoted his life to the 

 advancement of photograph}'. He was one of the 

 first to be successful in photographing the red rays 

 of the spectrum. 



The November Meteors. — Owing to the suc- 

 cessful efforts of MM. Janssen and Hansky to 

 observe from a balloon, it is probable that next 

 November its use will be attempted on a larger scale. 

 It is proposed to make two ascents from each of 

 three stations, one in Europe, one in America, and 

 one in Central Siberia. The balloons will be fully 

 equipped, and are to ascend to an altitude of 10,000 

 feet. At Cambridge, United States, 800 meteors, 

 not including duplicates, were observed by thirty 

 persons on November 14th. They seemed most 

 numerous about 3 a_m. (local time), when sixty-one 

 were seen in half-an-hour east of the meridian. At 

 Providence, forty miles south of Cambridge, 400 

 meteors were recorded by ten observers. Several 

 trails were photographed at both stations. The 

 radiant point is apparently R.A. ioh. 6 - 8m., Dec. 

 N. 20 16'. 



Comet j 1898 (Chase). — This was discovered on 

 some of the plates exposed to record meteor trails 

 at Yale College, and likewise appears on some of 

 the plates exposed at the Lick and Harvard 

 Observatories. Its orbit is said to be hyperbolic, 

 or enormously elliptic. 



A Remarkable Star. — One of the Wolf-Rayet 

 stars, known as D.M. + 30 3639, has been found 

 to be a most remarkable object when studied with 

 the spectroscope attached to the Lick telescope. 

 When the slit was opened wide, no cylindrical 

 lens being employed, the Hj8 line appeared as a 

 well-defined disc, whilst no such appearance was 

 noticed in the case of the almost equally bright 

 line at 4652, disproving that the disc was due to 

 irradiation. Further, the line Hy3 could be seen 

 when the star itself was thrown off the slit. Hj8 

 is due to hydrogen. This observation by Pro- 

 fessor Keeler, confirming Professor Campbell's 

 discovery, goes to indicate that an extensive 

 envelope of that gas surrounds this star. 



The lunar eclipse was seen well in many parts 

 of the country, notwithstanding the bad weather 

 in London. The eclipse was described as a dis- 

 tinctly bright one. So far no mention has reached 

 us of the colour phenomenon being observed, 

 to which attention was called in our December 

 number. 



Errata. — P. 24S, col. 2, par. 7, for " Mrs." read 

 Mr. P. 249, col. 2, line 12, for " w " read 25 ; line 

 17, for " Madle" read Madler ; line 32, for "46" 

 read w. 



