THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
98 
Visible Occultations of Algol for the 
Season of 1920-1921. 
BY WILLIAM A. MASON, IN THE MONTHLY 
EVENING SKY MAP. 
The following table gives the visible 
minima of the occultations of the varia- 
ble star Algol for the season of 1920- 
1921. The time given is the middle 
of the occultation, which begins five 
hours earlier and lasts five hours later 
than the hours indicated. 
The ephemeris has been corrected by 
the accumulated acceleration of the 
stars former period of revolution, 
which now brings the minima one hour 
earlier than the standard tables. 
The time given is U. S. Eastern 
Standard time. Algol is visible even- 
ings in the northeast in the fall, over- 
head in the winter, and in the north- 
west in March and April. 
1920. 
Oct. 4, 9:30 P. M. 
Oct. 7, 6:20 P. M. 
Oct. 24, 11:15 P. M. 
Oct. 27, 8:00 P. M. 
Oct. 30, 4:50 P. M. 
Nov. 14, 0:55 A. M. 
Nov. 16, 9:45 P. M. 
Nov. 19, 6:35 P. M. 
Dec. 6, 11:30 P. M. 
Dec. 9, 8:15 P. M. 
Dec. 12, 5:05 P. M. 
Dec. 27, 1:10 A. M. 
Dec. 29, 10:00 P.M. 
1921. 
Jan. 1, 6:50 P. M 
Jan. 18, 11:40 P. M. 
Jan. 21, 8:30 P. M. 
Tan. 24, 5:20 P. M. 
Feb. 8, 1:25 A. M. 
Feb. 10, 12:25 P. M. 
Feb. 13, 7:00 P. M. 
Mar. 2, 11:55 P. M. 
Mar. 5, 8:45 P. M. 
Mar. 8. 5:35 P. M. 
Mar. 23, 1 :35 P. M. 
Mar. 25, 10:25 P.M. 
Mar. 28. 7:15 P. M. 
A Good Observation. 
In the latter part of August, in con- 
nection with a talk on astronomy, the 
editor of this magazine distributed a 
few copies of the August number at 
the camp of the Boy Scouts in Stam- 
ford. Almost immediately a bright- 
eyed Scout called attention to the fact 
that if the cut on page 41 is held with 
the letter E at the top then all the vol- 
canoes on the moon stand out like 
heaps of earth, while if the picture is 
reversed and the E is at the bottom 
they look like holes in the ground. Per- 
haps some one equally observant and 
thoughtful can explain why in the first 
position the volcanoes are convex 
while in the second position they are 
concave. 
The same Scout also observed that 
a similar effect is not produced, or not 
in so marked a degree, with the illus- 
tration of the moon on page 42 of that 
number. 
A Call to Young Men. 
Your first duty in life is toward your 
aftcrself. So live that the man you 
ought to be may in his time be possible, 
be actual. 
Far away in the years he is waiting 
his turn. His body, his brain, his soul, 
are in your boyish hands. He cannot 
help himself. 
What will you leave for him? 
Will it be a brain unspoiled by lust 
or dissipation ; a mind trained to think 
and act ; a nervous system true as a dial 
in its response to the truth about you ? 
Will you, Boy, let him come as a man 
among men in his time? 
Or will you throw away his inherit- 
ance before he has had the chance to 
touch it? Will you turn over to him 
a brain distorted, a mind diseased, a 
will untrained to action, a spinal cord 
grown through and through with the 
devil-grass, wild oats? 
Will you let him come and take your 
place, gaining through your experience, 
happy in your friendships, hallowed 
through your joys, building on them his 
own ? 
Or will you fling it all away, decree- 
ing, wantonlike, that the man you 
might have been shall never be? 
This is your problem in life — the 
problem which is vastly weightier to 
you than any or all others. How will 
you meet it, as a man or as a fool? It 
comes before you today and every day, 
and the hour of your choice is the crisis 
in your destiny! — David Starr Jordan. 
The Marshes. 
’Tis the gala time of the marshes, 
In dull November weather, 
When the brilliance and beauty of all things 
else 
Have flown away together. 
’Tis then they come into their own, 
Are rich beyond compare, 
The mahogany and tawny shades, 
Aglow in the mellow air. 
And when dark clouds are hanging low, 
And sodden, all things, with rain, 
It does but deepen the wondrous tints, — 
They fairly bloom again! 
— Emma Peirce. 
