76 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
Venus is moving eastward past the stars of 
Gemini, and from May 13 to June 10 passes 
through the constellation, being a few degrees 
south of the bright stars Castor and Pollux 
j 
about the 30th. On the 20th she will be directly 
north of Sirius, and with Betelguese on the S. W., 
and Procyon on the S. E., will form a large 
diamond having sides about 26° long. The 
figures in diagram (Fig. 1) show the phases 
through which she passes in the four months, 
from May 10 to Sept 10. 
It will be seen that on Sept. 10 her apparent 
diameter will be four times what it is May 10 ; in 
other words, she is apparently sixteen times as 
large. The illuminated portion will be towards 
the sun in all cases. Any small telescope or 
good opera glass will reveal these phases, and 
if the instrument be a good one, a low power 
should be used, as small telescopes have de- 
tected in Venus what the most powerful instru- 
ments have failed to reveal. Galileo was the 
first man who saw these phases,, and thus by the 
aid of his simple, home-made telescope, this 
great man demonstrated the truth of the Coper- 
nican theory. 
The Moon.— The Moon will be in conjunction 
with the planets as follows : 
May 1— South of Uranus about 4°. 
" 14— North of Jupiter " 5°. 
" 14— " Mars " 6°. 
" 17— " Saturn " 8°. 
May 18— North of Mercury about 9°. 
" 19— " Neptune" 7°. 
" 24— South of Venus " 1°. 
28— " Uranus " 4°. 
The Moon will occult the first magnitude star 
Antares June 3, the Moon being nearly at the 
full at the time. The cut shows the points of 
immersion and emersion, for the latitude of 
(a) First contact, lOh. 56m. evening 3d. 
ih) Last contact, Oh. 2m. morning 4th. 
OCCULTATION OF ANTAKES BY THE MOON^. 
JUNE 3-4. 
Fig 1. 
(1) May 10— Apparent diameter, 14". 
(2) July 1— Apparent diameter, 10.5". 
(3) July 26— Apparent diameter, 14". 
(4) Aug. 19— Apparent diameter, 20" ; brightest. 
{5) Sept. 20 — Apparent diameter, 30" ; three days before inferior conjunction, as seen in daylight. 
(6) Sept. 10— Apparent diameter, 28" ; thirteen days before inferior conjunction. 
