So 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
that the people of the United States 
will see but little of it. The eclipse be- 
gins at 12:26 P. M., Greenwich time. 
This is 7 126 A. M. Eastern Standard 
time, which is after moonset. It is 
6:26 A. M. Central Standard time. 
There the moon sets at nearly this time. 
Those west of this longitude (ninety 
degrees) may see the eclipse begin. 
Figure 3. Showing the paths of Comet Tempel, 
Jupiter and the earth. 
The total eclipse begins one hour and 
three minutes later. The middle of the 
eclipse is forty-three minutes later still. 
Only those on the Pacific coast will 
see this as the moon will then have set 
for the others in the United States. 
None here will see the entire eclipse. 
Asia and a part of the Pacific ocean are 
in the region where the entire eclipse 
can be seen. Eastern United States 
and the Atlantic ocean will see none of 
it. This portion, however, will see the 
partial eclipse of the sun, which occurs 
next month, and Asia will not. 
;jc ;jc 
The Star Clusters. 
It is a well-known fact that star clus- 
ters are more numerous near the Milky 
Way than elsewhere, while with nebu- 
lae the opposite is true. In Figure 2 
the location of thirty-four star clusters, 
said to be visible in a three-inch tele- 
scope in the region of the sky contained 
in Figure 1, is shown. A comparison of 
the two figures shows very strikingly 
that these clusters are nearly all in the 
Milky Way. The position of the Milky 
AY ay could easily be told by merely 
examining the positions of the clusters. 
^ 
Tempel’s Comet. 
Date in July Tempel’s second peri- 
odic comet was observed on this return. 
This comet was first discovered by 
Tempel in 1873. Observation soon 
showed that it was an unusual comet 
in that it moved about the sun in an 
ellipse and thus, unlike ordinary 
comets, it would not leave the sun and 
perhaps never return. Its period was 
found to be about five and a quarter 
years and its greatest distance from the 
sun four and seven-tenths times that 
of the earth. It was expected to be 
visible again in 1878. It was seen then 
with difficulty. It was not seen in 1883 
and 1889. It was seen upon the next 
returns in 1894, 1899, 1904 and 1909, 
but not in 1915. 
With the notable exception of 
Encke’s, this is the comet of shortest 
period known and moves about the sun 
in a small orbit not reaching out as 
far as the orbit of Jupiter. This orbit 
is shown in Figure 3. The giant planet 
Jupiter has captured many comets and 
caused them to remain in the solar sys- 
tem. The fact that the outer end of 
the comet’s orbit lies near Jupiter’s 
orbit shows Jupiter’s influence. This 
comet is one of the most important of 
Jupiter’s family. 
^ ^ 5jC 
The New Star. 
On August 21 announcement was 
made that Denning, in England, had 
discovered a new star located in the 
constellation Cygnus. Unfortunately, 
this was too late for discussion in the 
September article. This star is in the 
position marked U in Figure 1. By a 
new star is meant a star which appears 
where before no star, or perhaps a far 
fainter star, was seen. Temporary 
stars or novae are other names for such 
objects. Astronomers know this ob- 
ject as Nova Cygni No. 3, meaning 
that it is the third nova which has ap- 
peared in the constellation Cygnus. The 
first appeared at AI in 1600 and the 
second at N in 1876. Both were as 
bright as the third magnitude. On ex- 
amining the photograph of the region 
about U made on August 9 it was found 
that no star as bright as 9.5 magnitude 
was present in the position of the new 
star, for the plate would show stars that 
faint. On August 19 the star was pres- 
ent of 4.8 magnitude. On August 22 
it was 2.8 magnitude. It increased in 
brightness to 1.9 magnitude on August 
23 and then began to fade out as such 
