TO KNOW THE STARRY HEAVENS 
95 
In all cases it is the northern part of 
the sun which is hidden. 
The eclipse is naturally more inter- 
esting in those places in which the 
eclipse is largest. This occurs in the 
Middle and New England States. 
Philadelphia lies on the line which 
shows that thirty per cent, of the sun’s 
diameter will be hidden, and Figure 3 
shows that the maximum eclipse occurs 
at 8.55 Central or 9.55 Eastern Stand- 
ard time. 
Figure 4 shows the appearance of 
the sun at eight times, from the first 
contact which occurs at 8.59 until the 
last contact at 11.17. These drawings 
represent the conditions approximately 
for places at a considerable distance 
from Philadelphia, such as New York 
or Baltimore. 
The eclipse may be watched through 
smoked or colored glass or the sun may 
be made to shine through a small hole 
and its image viewed on a white back- 
ground, such as a piece of paper, placed 
behind the hole. 
Occultations. 
Just as the moon passes over the sun 
and eclipses it, the moon also passes 
over stars and eclipses them, or occults 
them, as astronomers call it. Early on 
the morning of November 8 the moon 
passes over the bright star Spica. As 
seen from Washington, D. C., the star 
disappears at 5.12 A. M. and reappears 
at 6.35. This would be a very interest- 
ing occupation by reason of the bright- 
ness of the star occulted if it occurred 
at a more convenient time and if the 
star were not so close to the horizon 
when occulted. 
O11 November 16 the star Beta Capri- 
corni is occulted. As seen from Wash- 
ington it disappears at 4.27 and reap- 
pears at 5.58 P. M. The star is well up 
in the sky when the occupation occurs. 
Daylight will interfere with the view 
of the disappearance. The star is of 3.2- 
magnitude. Opera glasses or a tele- 
scope will be needed for satisfactory 
observation of the occupation, although 
the star is easily seen when not near 
the bright moon. Beta Capricorni is 
the star marked A on Figure 1. There 
is another star of 6.2 magnitude quite 
near Beta Capricorni. Opera glasses 
will show it. This star is also occulted. 
It disappears and reappears just ten 
minutes before the bright star. The 
bright star is yellowish, and the fainter,, 
which is just south of the brighter, is 
bluish. Both of these stars are double. 
When the brighter star was occulted 
in 1883, as it now is, it was found that 
it did not disappear all at once, as is. 
usual, but that the light was suddenly 
reduced and a second later vanished 
altogether. It was hence suspected 
of being double, and when examined 
with a larger telescope the suspicion 
was confirmed. The fainter star is a 
spectroscopic binary — that is, it is a 
double star with its components so 
close together that only the spectro- 
scope reveals the fact that there are 
two. The times have been given for 
Washington and they do not apply 
exactly at other places. By noting the 
relative positions of the moon and star 
about this time one can easily estimate 
closely when the occupation will occur. 
The moon moves through a space equal 
to its diameter in an hour. 
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The Planets. 
Venus may be seen low in the south- 
west in the evening twilight. It is now 
far south of the equator and not fa- 
vorably situated for northern observers. 
It will be farther north when at its 
best next spring. Venus cannot be 
shown on Figure 1. At the beginning 
