THE Hfe^VENS
-J
Monthly fCecord of the Stars, Planets, and Astronomical Events
No. 1
LOS ANGELES. APRIL. 1916
$1.00 per Year
THE HEAVENS
Edited by WILLIAM H. KNIGHT
621 Witmer St.
T.
684 Kip St.
Published by L. O'BRIEN
55191 and Bdwy,
8173
THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF L,OS ANGELES Meets at the Los Angeles High School, North Hill Street, on the second and fourth Tuesdays evenings of each month, except July and August. An- nual Dues 91.00.
FOREWORD
Great interest has been stimulated at the well-attended meetings of the Astronomical Society, now in the fourth year of its existence, in the noble science which deals with the heavenly bodies. As eager inquiries are constantly being made regarding current astronomical events and the work of the Society, it has been deemed best to publish a monthly Bulletin, giving in simple language for the comprehension of the intelli- gent but untechnical reader, an ex- planation of planetary phases and other information regarding the stars in our evening skies, and also an- nouncing future events at our semi- monthly meetings and occasional as- tronomical excursions.
The Constellations for April
In this longitude. 119 degrees west of Greenwich, the Giant Hunter, Belted Orion, with a quadrilateral of bright stars in his shoulders and feet, and three stars of the second magni- tude in his Belt, and the great Neb- ula of Orion in his flashing Sword, still holds the field in the early even- ing. To the northeast is the zodiacal
constellation of Gemini with two bright stars, Castor and Pollux, lo- cating the heads of the respective Twins. Castor is a fine double star, easily separated in a telescope of moderate power. The two compon- ents are large suns of unknown mag- nitude and revolve round their com- mon center of gravity in a period of about 350 years. What is surprising is that each of these components is a spectroscopic double of very short period — a few days — thus making the great star Castor an interesting quad- ruple system. Saturn and Its Wonderful Rings To the west of Gemini and midway between it and the constellation Taurus is the great yellow planet Saturn, surrounded by its gem-like rings. Its distance from the sun is 886,000,000 miles and its time of revo- lution round that body is about 29J/2 years. It is 73,000 miles in diameter, being 760 times larger than the earth, and larger than all the other planets of the solar system together, except- ing only Jupiter. The planet is be- lieved to be still in a hot condition and enveloped in an atmosphere of vapor hundreds of miles in depth. It turns on its axis in 10^ hours, conse- quently its day is but a little more than five hours in length. This great planet is surrounded by two enormous rings, 27,000 miles in breadth and 60 miles in thickness. They are now in a very favorable position and shine like burnished gold. The rings are probably composed of small meteoric bodies, so close together that the rings seem to be solid, but each of these small bodies is moving in an independent orbit, and those nearest the planet are moving much faster
THE GREAT PLANET SATURN AND ITS RINGS
than those farthest away. Inside the nearest bright ring is a dark or "crepe ring," semi-transparent, and possibly disintegrating and gradually falling upon the surface of the planet. Saturn's Many Satellites
Ten satellites, or moons, are cir- cling round this great planet, thus giving it the character of a miniature solar system. The nearest, Mimas, completes its swift revolution round its primary in 23 hours. The largest, Titan, is 3,500 miles in diameter, (the largest satellite in the solar system), is 750,000 miles distant, three times the distance of our moon from the earth, but completes its journey in 16 days. The farthest, Phoebe, is very small, probably not over 100 miles in diameter and requires about two years to complete its long journey. Its motion is retrograde, or contrary to that of the other satellites and the planets. On account of their great distance from the earth only three or four of these satellites are visible in the Lowe telescope. The Contellations Leo and Cancer
To the east of Gemini is the con- stellation Cancer within which is the beautiful star cluster, Praesepe, the central star of which is double. East of Cancer is Leo, containing the bright star Regulus which is at the end of the handle of the famous group known as the Sickle. The third star from Regulus is Gemma
Leonis — a double star whose two components show in the telescope the complementary colors of blue and yellow.
The Red Planet Mars
Midway between Leo and Cancer is the planet named for the god of war. It presents a large round brownish disc in the telescope and •shows one of the polar snowcaps to advantage. its peculiar markings, sometimes 'jdefiominated "canals,," can only be discerned m large tele- scopes located in high altitudes. Mars is the next planet beyond the earth's orbit and is 141,000,000 miles from the sun. Its diurnal rotation is 24^ hours and its period of revolution round the sun is 687 days, or a little more than one year and ten months- Mars is attended by two very small satellites, not more than 15 or 20 miles in diameter. They can only be seen by the aid of very powerful telescopes. Some astronomers be- lieve that Mars is inhabited by intel- ligent beings, and that the so-called canals are broad zones of verdure irrigated by watercourses connected with the melting snows of their polar regions.
Venus Now at Its Brightest
This brilliant evening star is now at the acme of its glory. Good eyes can see it in broad daylight. In March it presented the appearance of a half moon. It is now beginning
'^301(^
to assume the shape of a scescent. As it returns towards the sun the crescent will continually grow more slender till the planet disappears en- tirely from view. Venus is a sister planet nearly as large as the earth and when between us and the sun is only 26,000,000 miles distant. It is surrounded by a thick atmosphere of vapor so that the body of the planet can never be seen. . It is 67,000,000 miles from the sun and its period of revolution round that body is 224 days, and it moves at the rate of 21 miles per second in its orbit.
HISTORY AND WORK OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
A little over three years ago two bright young men — Prof. Charles C. Kelso of the Los Angeles High School, formerly with Dr. Washing- ton Gladden of Columbus, Ohio, and Mr. Thomas P. Smith, an enterpris- ing business man of this city, both
i_OWE OBSERVATORY
ardent students of astronomy, organ- ized the "Astronomy Club" with Miss Clare Germain, a lady of culture and extensive foreign travel as president. A large class room with black-boards and electric current for lantern slides was kindly tendered for the use of the club by the high school management. The club grew and flourished and semi-monthly sessions have been held since its inception.
Lectures on astronomical and sci- entific topics have been given by Mr.
B, R. Baumgardt, speaker of nation-^
al fame; Dr. Frank P. Brackett, Di-p^< rector of the Pomona College Ob- . servatory; Prof. Melville Dozier, Dep- W Oy uty Superintendent of Public Schools; Mr. S. J. Keese, physicist of the /^^ / Academy of Sciences; William H. Knight, Former President of the Academy of Sciences; Prof. Edgar L. Larkin, Director of the Lowe Ob- servatory; Rev. Ralph B. Larkin, on Radio-Activity; Mr. W. Scott Lewis, student of astronomy; Mr, William A. Spalding, former President of the Academy of Sciences; Dr. Charles E. St. John, of the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory and Prof, D, S. Swan, of the Los Angeles High School.
From time to time astronomical ex- cursions have been made to the Lowe Observatory, to the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, to the Carnegie Laboratory of the Solar Observa- tory at Pasadena, and to Mount Hol- lywood at the summit of Griffith Park, Others are contemplated in the near future.
At the beginnig of the year the name of the organization was changed to its present title — "Astro- nomical Society of Los Angeles." The Giant Sun Canopus
Almost directly south of Sirius, about six degrees above the southern horizon, is the remarkable star Can- opus, which, next to Sirius, shines in the skies of the southern hemisphere with a splendor exceeding that of any other of the so-called fixed stars. It belongs to the constellation Argo Navis and is not visible in any of the observatories of Europe or America except those located in Southern Cal- ifornia, and then only when Orion is near the Meridian, Its brightness, like that of the sun when near the horizon, is dimmed because we view it through a stratum of dense atmos- phere. Its parallax has not been de- termined but it cannot be less than 500 light years distant, and in magni- tude it may exceed the sun 50,000 times.
OFFICERS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
William H. Knight President
Miss Clare Germain Past President
Mrs. Ita Dennison Treasurer
Chas. C. Kelso Chairman Finance Committee
Mars Baumgardt Chairman Program Committee
Thomas P. Smith Chairman Executive Committee
852 South Figueroa St.
T. L. O'Brien Secretary
684 Kip St. Phones: 55191 and Broadway 8173
Tuesday, April 11th, 8 p. m.
Address by Mr. William A. Spalding, on "The Period of Sunspot Maxima Now Approaching — Are Suns and Planets Great Dynamos Mutually Influenc- ing Each Other, and Affecting Climatic Conditions on the Earth?"
The Astronomical Society of Los Angeles meets at 8 p. m. on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month, at the L. A. High School. All meetings are open to the public.
ASTRONOMICAL EXCURSION BULLETIN
Direction of T. L. O'Brien, 684 Kip St., Phones Broadway 8173, Home 55191
LOS ANGELES
ASTRONOMICAL EXCURSION
AND
BASKET PICNIC
TO
MT. LOWE OBSERVATORY
AND
ALPINE TAVERN
SATURDAY, APRIL 22nd
The Excursion will leave the P. E. Station, Sixth and Main Streets, at 9 a. m. on Saturday, April 22nd, reaching Alpine Tavern at 11 a. m. The return trip will start at 5 p. m. from Alpine Tavern, stopping at the Lowe Observatory, view the Sun set in the Pacific Ocean, and then, gather- ing round the great telescope, observe the wonders of the Heavens. Prof. Edgar L. Larkin will preside.
Reduced Excursion fare for the round trip, $1.75, includes stop-over privilege of one day. (Tickets good going on any regular car same day.)
The party will arrive home about 9:45 p. m.
A special identification badge will be provided each member of the party
to insure admission to the observa- tory.
Tickets are now on sale at Wells Fargo & Co. Express, 609-611 South Main Street, directly across the street from the Pacific Electric Station, or can be secured from T. L. O'Brien.
EASTER SUNRISE PARTY NOTICE
Several members of the Astronomi- cal party will take advantage of the stop over privilege of their tickets and form an Easter Sunrise Party on the summit of Mt. Lowe which is over 6000 feet above sealevel.
Parties leaving on the 1:30 and 4:00 p. m] cars will arrive at the Lowe Ob- servatory in time to join the home- ward bound Astronomical Party and there view the Heavenly Bodies to- gether and then complete the trip to Alpine Tavern where the stop is made for the night.
To insure hotel accommodations reservations should be made at the earliest possible date.
For further information see T. L. O'Brien.
THE HEAVENS
Monthly Record of the Stars, Planets, and Astronomical Events
No. 2
Los ANGELES, May 1916
$1.00 per Year
THE HEAVENS
Edited by WILLIAM H. KNIGHT
621 Witmer St.
Published by T. L. O'B R i E N
684 Kip St. 55191 and Bdwy. 8173
THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF L.OS ANGELES Meets at the Los Angeles High School, North Hill Street, on the second and fourth Tuesdays evenings of each month, except July and August. An- nual Dues 91.00.
Thereon was figured earth and sky
and sea, The ever circling sun and full orbed
moon, And all the signs that crown the vault
of heaven — Pleiads and Hyads. and Orion's
might. And Arctos, called the Wain.
— Homer.
WHY STUDY ASTRONOMY?
By Harold Jacoby, Professor of As- tronomy at Columbia University
The question is often asked: Why is it desirable to study astronomy? Would it not be better to devote our time to something less abstruse, less far away — in short, to something practical that we can use in our every- day life? There must exist a good answer to this question, just as there must be a reason why students of early human records accept the state of astronomical knowledge as a touch- stone by which to test the intellec- tual development of ancient peoples.
What is there, then, about astrono-
m}^ distinguishing that science among all branches of human learning? On the one hand it makes an appeal to the imagination, almost invariably ir- resistible; for no mind remains unaf- fected by the vastness inseparable from the heavens. This gives us a poetry of the stars, attractive above and beyond the science itself. Joined to this again is another characteristic still more important. The problems of astronomy are the most intricate known to the intellect of man, and yet they are the ones permitting the most exact solutions. Astronomy has been rightly called the "perfect sci- ence"; but its perfection does not con- sist in completeness of knowledge. It i not that our information is all gathered in, that no chance of further success tempts men on to new fields of research, but that the harvest we hope to gain in the future, like those garnered in the past, will be quite perfect of its kind.
It is a singular thing, then, that as- tronomy, though a leader among the more abstruse sciences, should, never- theless, be one that comes nearest the people in their daily life. For it is to astronomy that we owe the possi- bility of regulating time and navigat- ing ships. Without the results of ob- servatory work we could neither guide vessels across the ocean nor adjust the time pieces used in our ever3'day affairs.
THE PLANETS FOR MAY
Mercury is now an evening star and will reach its greatest eastern elongation, 22 degrees from the sun, on May 12. It will then be in Taurus and will be visible for an hour and a
half after sunset. It is a reddish planet and euqal in brightness to a star of the first 'magnitude. The only prominent star near the sun.
Venus continues an evening star throughout the months of May and June. On April 23 it was at its great- est eastern elongation, 45 degrees from the sun. On May 23 it will be in conjunction with Saturn, in the constellation Gemini, but the two planets will be 3^4 degrees apart. It will increase in brilliancy till May 27th, from which date it will begin to "''•ane.
Mars, now in the constellation Gemini, will move eastward and enter Leo, passing the first magnitude star Regulus on May 24th. It will then be within one degree of that star and will be a fine sight.
Saturn will be visible during the months of May and June, advancing slowly eastward through Gemini to- wards Cancer.
Jupiter is now a bright morning star.
HISTORY OF THE LOWE OB- SERVATORY
(From an article published in the Sci- entific American October 13, 1894)
Owing to advancing years and fail- ing eyesight Dr. Swift resigned as di- rector in 1902 and returned to the East, and in 1913 died at the home of his boyhood in Central New York at the ripe age of 92.
He was succeeded by the present learned and popular astronomer Prof. Edgar L. Larkin, to whom the stars have been a study of absorbing inter- est for forty years.
"A new astronomical observatory has been established in Southern Cali- fornia by Professor T. S. C. Lowe, the projector, builder, and president of the Mount Lowe Railway, an illus- trated description of which was pub- lished in our issue of February 3, 1894. Its location is seven miles by rail north of Pasadena and sixteen
miles northeasc of Los Angeles, the rapidly growing metropolis of the Southwest.
"The new observatory is well euipped with the great 16 inch Clark refractor and other instruments, which have done notable work in the War- ner Observatory at Rochester, under the directorship of the eminent as- tronomer Dr. Lewis Swift. The build- ings consist of a central tower 32 feet in diameter, surmounted by a light dome, and two unequal wings — the smaller containing a dark room for photographic work and the larger furnished with cases for the extensive astronomical library of reference gathered by Dr. Swift in the course of his professional career. A large platform in front will have ample room to manipulate the comet seeker, and to accommodate the throngs of visitors who will claim his attention on stated occasions.
".The Sierra Madre Mountains, upon which the Lowe Observatory is located, have an east and west trend, and rise abruptly from the San Gab- riel Valley on the south to an altitude exceeding 6,000 feet above sea level. The observatory is built upon a south- ern spur of these mountains, about 150 feet higher than the Echo Moun- tain House, reached by the Mount Lowe Railway, and half a mile west of it. Its altitude is about 3,600 feet above the sea and 2,000 feet above the foot hill mesa at the base of the base of the mountains, which are very steep at this point. While the crest of the range rises high above the ob- servatory and shelters it on the north, leaving, however, the north star vis- ible, the entire southern horizon is unobstructed, extending to the rim* of a large segment of the Pacific Ocean, about 100 miles distant on the south and west. Astronomically it is near- ly at the intersection of 34th parallel of north latitude with the 118th meri- dian of longitude west of Greenwich. This very low latitude combined with a high altitude, gives Dr. Swift a zone
of the" celestial sphere ten degrees wide not visible from his Rochester Observatory, and his longitude en- ables him to observe celestial objects three hours after they are below the horizon at the Harvard Observatory.
"Besides the ten degrees of south latitude at the Lowe Observatory not commanded by Dr. Swift at Roches- ter, he now posseses other advan- tages which must be fruitful of im- portant scientific results. The large proportion of clear nights will enable him to make continuous and uninter- rupted observations. When a new discovery is made, whether a comet, an asteroid, a nebula, or a new star blazing forth from the depths of space, he will be able to follow it night after night with telescope and spectroscope and camera, and catch and hold the celestial object in all its varying phases and motions.
"But besides an unclouded sky, there is a peculiar clearness in the atmosphere.
"Three-fourths of a mile of the densest portion of the atmosphere, with its dust, fog, haze, and other impurities, is below the observatory and Dr. Swift is able to use much higher powers on his instruments at all times than he could under the most favorable conditions at Roches- ter, thus vastly increasing the effi- ciency of their use.
"Dr. Swift has been the recipient of many distinguished honors from eminent institutions in Amerca and Europe. Three gold medals were awarded by the Imperal Academy of Science at Vienna for comet discov- eries in 1877, 1878, and 1879. The Lalande prize, valued at 500 francs, and a silver medal were given by the French Academy of Sciences in recog- nition of the rapidity of his astro- nomical discoveries in 1881. The bronze medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific was awarded for the discovery of the famous many- tailed comet of 1892.
"But brilliant as are his achieve-
ments in the discovery of comets, they are almost insignificant when compared with the work accomplished in an entirely different field of inves- tigation. Dr. Swift has discovered and catalogued more nebulae than any other living astronomer. The number of these faint, elusive, tanta- 'lizing, and highly interesting objects first detected and accurately de- scribed by him now reaches the sur- prising total of 960. Only the two Herschels, father and son, surpass this record. Sir William began his researches more than a century ago, and Sir John had the advantage of several years' residence in South Africa, thus placing the entire south- ern hemisphere under his scrutiny. Wm. H. Knight. "Los Angeles, August 28, 1894."
THE MOUNT WILSON SOLAR OBSERVATORY
From an interview with Dr. Walter S. Adams, Assistant Director of the Mount Wilson Observatory, we learn that the large circular building which is to house the great 100-inch reflec- tor, is nearly finished, and the heavi- est castings for the telescope, one of which weighs nine tons, are now in place. But the mirror will not be ready to be set in its elaobrate mount- ing till the early part of the year 1917. The delicate work of grinding and polishing the immense concave sur- face has been a very laborious task, bue is being successfully accomplished by Prof. G. W. Ritchey, who pro- duced the flawless surface of the great 60-inch reflector, by means of which unrivalled research work has been accomplished during the past six years. What may be not expect when the 100-inch reflector is installed next year? Will it give us glimpses of other universes beyond the confines of the vast sidereal system which we have been studying?
OFFICERS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
William H. Knight, 621 Witmer St. (Wilsbire 354) President
Charles C. Kelso, Chairman Finance Committee Vice-President
Miss Clare Germain Past President
Mrs. Ita Dennison Treasurer
Thomas P. Smith, 852 S. Figueroa St Chairman Executive Committee
Mars Baumgardt, 626 W. 30th St Chairman Program Committee
T. L. O'Brien, 684 Kip St. (Home 55191, Bdwy. 8173) Secretary
MEETINGS OF THE ASTRO- NOMICAL SOCIETY
Tuesday, May 9 — Mr. W. Scott Lewis will address the Society. His sub- ject: "The Ice Age; Various The- ories Regarding the Formation and Disappearance of the Great Polar Ice-cap Many Thousands of Years Ago." Los Angeles High School at 8 p. m. sharp.
Tuesday, May 16 — Observation Night, Los Angeles High School.
Tuesday, May 23 — Lecture by Mr. W. C. Schoelkopf. Subject: "As- tronomical and Scientific Measures
of Time; Referring to Siderial, So- lar, and Standard Time, and Hu- man Devices for Measuring Same." Meeting at the L. A. High School
at 8 p. m. sharp.
Tuesday, May 30 — Observation Night, Los Angeles High School.
Tuesday, June 13 — Lecture by Dr. C. C. Kiess, Assistant Director of the Brackett Observatory at Pomona College. Subject: "Variable Stars; the Algol Eclipsing and Other Types." At the Los Angeles High School, at 8 p. m. sharp.
Tuesday, June 27 — Lecture by Mr. Waddy, an English gentleman. Subject will be announced later.
A special meeting of the Astronomical Society will be held at the Audi- torium of the Polytechnic High School, Wednesday, May 17th, at 8 p. m., and will be addressed by President Wm. H. Knight on the "Approaching Conjunc- tion of Venus, the Brightest Star in the Heavens, and Saturn, the Ringed Planet." The public is cordially invited. Admission free.
ASTRONOMICAL EXCURSION BULLETIN
Direction of T. L. O'Brien, 684 Kip St., Phones Broadway 8173, Home 55191
ASTRONOMICAL EXCURSION AND BASKET PICNIC TO MT. LOWE OBSERVATORY AND ALPINE TAVERN SATURDAY, MAY 27TH The Excursion will leave the P. E. Station, Sixth and Main Streets, at 9 a. m. on Saturday, May 27th, arriv- ing at Alpine Tavern at 11a. m., re- turn trip leaving Alpine Tavern at 5 p. m. Stopping at the Lowe Obser- vatory viewing the sun spots, also Venus, brightest star in the Heav- ens, and Saturn the ringed planet.
LOS ANGELES
the most wonderful of heavenly bodies, the red planet Mars, God of War, now passing Regulus, a star of the first magnitude. Prof. Edgar L. Larkin will preside.
Reduced Excursion fare for the round trip, $1.75, includes stop-over privilege of one day. (Tickets good going on any regular car same day.)
The party will arrive home about 9:45 p. m.
A special identification badge will be provided, to insure admission to the observatory.
Tickets and further information can be secured from T. L. O'Brien. Sec- retary; also at Wells Fargo & Com- pany Express, 609-611 South Main St.
■5i
7rr •"V i3 1.33
THE HEAVENS
Monthly Record of the Stars, Planets, and Astronomic^/ Everit:^
1918
No. 3
Los ANGELES, JUNE 191
rr
$1.00 per Year
THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF L.OS ANGELES Meets at the Los Angeles Hi§:h School, North Hill Street, on the second and fourth Tuesday evenings of each month, except July and August. An- nual Dues $1.00.
VULCAN, THE HYPOTHETICAL PLANET
By Mars F. Baumgardt
An interesting chapter of astronom}^ is that which deals with Vulcan, the intra-Mercurial planet, supposedly dis- covered by Dr. Lescarbault, a Paris- ian banker and amateur astronomer.
It had not escaped the attention of astronomers that there were certain discrepencies in the orbit of Mercury, which, like those of Uranus, might be explained upon the theory of some unknown disturbing body in the solar system, but this time situated be- tween Mercury and the sun. Among those whose attention was attracted to the subject was Leverrier, the Di- rector of the Paris Observatory, a mathematical genius of the very high- est order, who thirteen years earlier, jointly with John Couch Adams had by the inverse method discovered the planet Neptune.
Leverrier found that the discrep- ency in the case of Mercury amounted to 31° of arc in the perihelion mo- tion, a disagreement between theory and observation which could be satis- fied by postulating the existence of a disturbing body between Mercury and the sun. -Applying Bode's Law, an empirical formula supposed to ex- press the approximate distances of the planets from the sun by doubling the distances and adding four to the prod- uct, as we proceed in an outward di-
rection, it Avas thought that the per- turbing body^sfiould be about sixteen million miles from the sun. Then by the application of Kepler's Third Law, that the cubes of the average distances of the planets from the sun are ever proportional to the squares of their periodic times, an orbit of thirty-three days was given to the hypothetical planet, and a transit across the disk of the sun was pre- dicted for March 22, 1877. At the ap- pointed time from observatories lo- cated all over the world the surface of the sun was closely watched. No transit occurred. Theory and obser- vation did not agree.
A new orbit was then calculated by Theodor von Oppolzer, another emi- nent mathematician, and once more a transit was prophesied. The results, however, were equally disappointing.
At the time when Leverrier made his first announcement, Dr. Lescar- bault stated that he had actually seen the supposed planet pass across the sun as early as March 26, 1859. After this, from time to time, other ama- teur astronomers reported having ob- served the same phenomenon. Le- verrier rejected all but six of these reported observations. From these he calculated his elements for the tran- sit that did not take place. When the reported observations were more closely scrutinized it was found that they had been made by amateurs with but small instruments at their com- mand. In many cases sunspots had been mistaken for Vulcan, the name by which the hypothetical planet was now known. Nevertheless, when every allowance had been made for error there remained some observa- tions that it seemed could not be ex-
plained away. It was therefore neces- sary to try other methods.
During total eclipses, at the time of maximum darkness, small stars can be seen in the neighborhood of the sun. If Vulcan, accordingly, was of its calculated size, it should during the eclipse be a rather conspicuous object when in the proximity of the sun. The Lick Observatory took the matter up. Astronomers were sent all over the earth, accompanying eclipse expeditions for the express purpose of searching for the intra- mercurial planet. Specially con- structed cameras were used for photo- graphing the neighborhood of the sun in areas extending beyond the limits allowed Vulcan. This was repeated at so many eclipses that if the elusive planet really existed it should have made itself manifest on at least some of the plates. A careful examination, however, of the plates proved that every object around the sun at the time of eclipse could easily be iden- tified with some known star. The negative results of these trials has recently been announced by Director Campbell of the Lick Observatory.
But what about the visual observa- tions of "Vulcan announced simul- taneously by Watson of Ann Arbor and Lewis Swift, the one time Direc- tor of the Lowe Observatory? Both these sleuth-hounds of the heavens were certain that on the occasion of the Total Eclipse of the Sun July 29, 1878, they had actually seen two intra- mercurial planets in the neighbor- hood of the sun. The answer is that what they took to be planets was in reality the two stars Theta and Zeta in Cancer, an explanation with which Dr. Lewis Swift never agreed. To the very last he stoutly maintained that he had not been mistaken — that he had actually seen Vulcan.
As the matter stands today it seems that Vulcan has been eliminated from the family of planets surrounding our sun. The disturbances in the orbital
journey of Mercury are attributed to other causes — to friction due to cloud- particles such as go to make up the Zodiacal light, to radiation and in- tense electrical disturbances emanat- ing from the sun itself.
Thus closes what is probably the last chapter of a famous astronomical controversy which for fifty-seven years occupied the attention of some of our leading men of science.
MR. SPALDING'S LECTURE ON "SUNSPOTS"
The lecture on "Sunspot Phenom- ena" given before the Astronomical Society by Mr. W. A. Spalding at the meeting of April 11, was effectively illustrated, both on the screen and by blackboard drawings. The spots were first studied by Scheiner in 1610, bu^ their existence was doubted and de- plored by unscientific writers who in- sisted that the sun was a pure and unsullied body. The lecturer gave an interesting account of the discovery of the sunspot period of eleven years by the long and patient research of the amateur astronomer Heinrich Schwabe, of Dessau, Germany.
By means of sunspots we learn that the period of the sun's rotation on its axis is 25 days and five hours, giving the surface velocity at the solar equa- tor at about 3,000 miles per hour. The spectropheliograph reveals the fact that the spots are vast whirling mael- stroms in the solar photosphere. They appear in zones between latitudes from eight to thirty degrees either north or south of the sun's equator. The spectropheliograph also reveals the fact that the spots north of the equator whirl in an opposite direc- tion. The lecturer compared these reverse motions to those of the cy- clones in the earth's atmosphere on opposite sides of the terrestrial equa- tor. Mr. Spalding believes that phe- nomenal outbursts of sunspots, when directed towards the earth, not infre- quently affect the electrical condition
of the earth's atmosphere, and they are often attended with unusual dis- plays of the Aurora Borealis. By means of a series of dates and curved lines on the blackboard there was an intimation that certain positions of the great planet Jupiter in its orbit were coincident with observed effects upon the sun. Mr, Spalding has long been a student of these phenomena and speaks with authority.
VENUS, MARS AND SATURN
Changeless Duration of the Constel- lations
By George C. Comstock, Director of Washburn Observatory
Have you watched the serene beauty of Venus as it crept modestly forth from the glare of sunset a few weeks ago, and has grown in brilliancy till it stands as a celestial beacon com- manding even the most heedless eye, and stirring even the dullest churl to admiration of its splendor? A glori- ous spectacle and worthy to be fol- lowed in its declining course as, with diminishing brightness, the planet moves backward toward the sun, set- ting each night a little earlier until it is lost in the sun's radiance, only to reappear a little later in the morning sky, there to run another course.
And so may Mars and Saturn be followed and the paths marked out in which they move, a long stride to- wards the east, followed by a shorter one to the west, and again a long one to the east, in endless procession. Easy for us to understand who know the relations of the planets to the earth and the sun, but puzzling in the highest degree to remote generations of astronomers.
And the stars themselves, fixed stars, that, unlike the planets, abide ever in the same constellations, form- ing among themselves indissoluble
groups and families that come and go, each at its appropriate season, with an unrivalled punctuality that regu- lates the clocks and watches of man- kind today, as 5,000 years ago, the same stars, moving at the same un- varying pace, regulated the lives of men to whom clocks and watches were unimagined things. Are not these admirable for their well-ordered beauty and their changeless duration? Orion and the Pleiades, Gemini and the Sickle, the Scorpion and that glorious celestial girdle of shimmer- ing light that men call the Galaxy, or Milky Way — these have come to us unchanged from the days of Homer and David, of Job and the earliest civilization that grew up in the val- ley of the Nile. And what is there of such undoubted antiquity yet so ac- cessible to modern eyes? Where else in art or nature shall we find the veritable objects about which twine more than fifty centuries of admiring myth and legend, of reverent worship and of patient scientific study? The immutable, the eternal, stand here as nowhere else, revealed in all their sublimity to the contemplative mind.
TWO PROCESSIONS OF STARS
It is with pleasure that we learn that Prof. J. C. Kapteyn, of the Uni- versity of Groningen, Holland, is to resume his research work at the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory in a few weeks. It was his analytical mind that untangld the mazes of the sears' proper motions and set them marching, so to speak, in two orderly processions across the celetial sphere. In his account of the methods by which he reached his conclusions, in a lecture given before the assembled astronomers of the world at the solar Conference held on Mount Wilson, in September 1910, he thrilled his appre- ciative audience, and all felt that they had a new glimpse into the wonder- ful mysteries of the Universe.
OFFICERS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
William H. Knight, 621 Witmer St. (Wilshire 354) President
Charles C. Kelso, Chairman Finance Committee Vice-President
Miss Clare Germain Past President
Mrs. Ita Dennison Treasurer
Thomas P. Smith, 852 S. Figueroa St Chairman Executive Committee
Mars Baumgardt, 626 W. 30th St Chairman Program Committee
T. L. O'Brien, 684 Kip St. (Home 55191, Bdwy. 8173) Secretary
MEETINGS OF THE ASTRO- ANCIENT ESTIMATES OF SUN'S NOMICAL SOCIETY DISTANCE
Tuesday, June 13— Lecture by Dr. C. C. Kiess, Assistant Director of the Brackett Observatory at Pomona College. Subject: "Variable Stars; the Algol Eclipsing and Other Types." At the Los Angeles High School, at 8 p. m. sharp.
Tuesday, June 20th— Observation Night, Los Angeles High School, 8 P. M.
Tuesday, June " 27th— Lecture, Los Angeles High School, 8 P. M. Subject announced later.
VACATION EXCURSIONS
The Astronomical Society will take a vacation during the months of July and August, but two excursions have been planned for the Society during those months as follows:
On Saturday, July 22, the members of the Society and their friends spend the evening on Mount Hollywood, in Griffith Park. The summit is 1660 feet above sea level and commands a magnificent view of the surrounding country. Take the Hollywood Frank- lin Avenue trolley to Western avenue, arriving at 4 p. m. with lunch baskets and field glasses, and walk thence three miles to the summit.
On Saturday, August 19, there will be an excursion to Mount Wilson. The summit is nearly 6000 feet in height and can be reached by foot by horseback, and by automobile.
Aristarchus, born 267 B. C. was the first to reason that the earth moves round the sun, and estimated the dis- tance of that body 3,000,000 miles.
Hipparchus, the father of astron- omy, born 160 B. C, discovered the Procession of the Equinoxes and gave same estimate of sun's distance.
Ptolemy, born 140 A. D., inventor of the Ptolemaic theory of the celes- tial sphere, increased the sun's dis- tance to 5,000,000 miles.
Kepler, the great German astron- omer, born 1571, and contemporane- ous with Copernicus and Galileo, in- creased the sun's distance to 14 mil- lion miles.
Cassini, French astronomer, born 1625, made first approximation to present accepted distance, 86,000,000 miles.
Euler, German astronomer, born 1707, gave an estimate of 92,900,000 miles which nearly coincides with present figures.
Prof. Edgar L. Larkin, the noted as- tronomer and scientist, will be at home to his many friends and astron- omical students. Saturday and Sun- day of each week at the Mt. Lowe Observatory.
Edited by WILLIAM H. KNIGHT
621 Witmer St.
Published by T. L. O'BRIEN
684 Kip St. 55191 and Bdwy. 8173
13IFT jJN 13 1^
THE HEAV]^.|tfSfcf^
Monthly Record of the Stars, Planets, and Astronomical Events
No. 4
LOS ANGELES, SEPTEMBER, 1916
$1.00 per Year"
THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OP I.OS ANGELES Meets at the L.os Angeles High School, North Hill street, on the seeond and fourth Tuesday evenings of each month, except July and Angrust. An- nual Dues $1.00.
MARVELS AND DELIGHTS OF
THE SCIENCE OF
ASTRONOMY
By WUliam H. Knight
The development of the noble sci- ence of astronomy from the crude imaginings of the ancient seers to the present broad grasp of the laws gov- erning the motions of the heavenly bodies, and an insight, however im- perfect, of their physical and chem- ical constitution, is a subject of pro- found significance to the student of human thought.
At the very dawn of civilization, Hindu, Chaldean, Egyptian, Persian, Arabian, and Greek philosophers, were deeply interested in the problems sug- gested by the various aspects of the stars. With astonishing precision they observed and recorded in their crude way, minute and elusive details of star positions and constellated groups. They speculated with hazy thoughts about the sweep of an adamantine firmament across the mysterious vault of heaven. But what could they actually know, or even reasonably con- jecture about the appalling distances, the vast magnitudes, or the complex motions of the heavenly bodies?
To them the earth was a wide- spreading plain, the chief object in the universe, and the stars, though out of reach, not very far off, ornamenting an ever rolling firmament, arranged for
^ ^Sl:
the exclusive^ benght-* of mankind; ~^' Little by little^^a certain order was evolved from the scattered observa- tions. Magnifying instruments gave discs to the planets and suggested that they are great worlds in space. Mathe- matical calculations demonstrated their distances. Chemistry, optics and spec- trum analysis gave hint of their physical constitution and kinship with earth substances. These, together with the coordinating aid of other branches of science, have given the modem mind a more adequate conception of the profound truths of astronomy.
Some of us may be oblivious of the laws of astronomical science, but we are ever under their sway. We whirl with the earth's surface round its imaginary axis every twenty-four hours. At the equator this surface mo- tion is at the rate of one thousand miles per hour. Here, on the 34th par- allel, we are constantly rushed forward at the rate of 750 miles per hour. We fly in a vast orbit round the sun, 550,- 000,000 miles in length, with the Lmthinkable speed of eighteen and a half miles per second. Yet, how un- conscious we are of both motions.
Nay, there is a third motion, of vast significance, by which our central sun, with its marvelous retinue of planets, satellites, asteroids and com- ets, numbering thousands of bodies, is performing a grand journey through the profound depths of space, directed towards a point in the constellation Lyra, in the neighborhood of the mas- sive sun Vega, now shining serenely in the zenith of our summer skies. Twelve miles per second, more than a million miles per day, nearly 400,000,- 000 miles per year, marks the progress of this wonderful journey. And all of
US are passengers in this sublime flight through the mysterious depths of uncharted space. Some of us give no more thought to these tremendous facts than the spider swinging in its gossamer hammock, the bird caroling from the tree, or the wild beast hunt- ing its prey.
Is it not worth while to enrich your experiences with some knowledge of these things? To know the stars is to love them; they become the children of your mind. They will be an unfail- ing source of intellectual pleasure as long as you live.
STARS AND PLANETS ARE DYNAMOS
(St. Louis Post Dispatch)
The results of observations and ex- periments at the Mount Wilson Ob- servatory have led Director Hale to express the belief that the sun is "a great magnet.
It has long been believed that there is a connection between the earth's ro- tation and its magnetism. There seems to be no reason to doubt that all the planets are magnets, and that they derive their magnetic power from their rotation.
This opens to the imagination a pic- ture of the Universe as a huge dynamo, the various planets swinging round their suns, each wrapped about in its own magnetized and magnetizing coil, and the whole generating an all-per- vading electric fluid.
Thus, the earth, Venus, Mars, Ju- piter, Saturn and the rest of them, transforming force into the terms of electricity, find within themselves sources of energy, heat and light.
And this, repeated in thousands of other solar systems, each group con- sisting of a great sun, or perhaps two spectroscopic suns, and many planets revolving round them, makes of space a perpetual source of supply of that most mysterious thing in the world — electricity.
Just exactly what magnetic force really is, nobody is really sure. It was discovered that if one took a bar of soft iron and wrapped an insulated wire round it, and turned on an elec- tric current, the bar became a mag- net. But it lost its power when the current was turned off. This estab- lished beyond dispute that there is some connection between magnetism and electricity, but just what no one has been able to discover.
North of the Equator the compass needle points to the north, and the further north you go the deeper the dip, till finally it points towards the center of the earth. It is presumed that this behavior of the needle would be the same if transformed to other planets.
Sprinkle iron filings on a cardboard, hold a magnet under the board and tap it with your finger. The filings will arrange themselves in systematic curves. On the occurrence of the solar eclipse of May 28, 1900, a photograph of the sun's corona was taken. On this occasion the photograph exhib- ited whorls of light which bore a striking resemblance to curves set up in the iron filings. It was assumed that the two phenomena were due to the same general cause.
Spectograph pictures of the sun have shown that there are magnetic fields on its surface around the so- called sun spots.
ANTARES AND THE SCORPION
One of the finest objects in these skies is the splendid constellation known from time immemorial as the Scorpion. Indeed it is the only one in all the heavens that bears a striking resemblance to its name. We can imagine with what veneration the as- tronomers of Persia, Arabia and Egypt regarded this remarkable group of stars. Fiery Antares, a ruddy star of the first magnitude throbs at the heart of the monster; a row of bright stars farther west mark the head;
while a chain of brilliants extending downward and eastward, then curving up to two stars which form the sting, and it is not surprising that this prod- igy of the southern skies should have held spell-bound the imagination of those ancient peoples.
To add greatly to the interest of modern astronomers, many of the stars expand into doubles, triples and quadruples under the telescope. And the naked eye perceives that the crea- ture is whisking its tail among a mul- titude of small stars in the Milky Way. But note those two stars of the second magnitude to the west of the head; these were known in very ancient times as the two projecting Claws of the Scorpion. Previous to the time of Julius Caesar there were only eleven signs in the Zodiac, and Caesar felt that there should be twelve signs, cor- responding to the twelve months of the year. Now as Scorpio was the largest of all the constellations, this reformer of the calendar amputated the Scorpion's claws and with some adjacent stars formed the new constel- lation of Libra — the scales of even- handed justice. It is the only constel- lation in the Zodiac not named for some animal.
One of the giant suns of the uni- verse is the red star Antares in the heart of the Scorpion. It is so far away that its parallax has not yet been definitely determined, but it cannot be less than 300 light years distant, and that means that it cannot be less than 20,000, possibly 30,000 times larger and more massive than our sun. It is accompanied by a small green com- panion of the 10th magnitude, which, however, may not be physically con- nected with Antares, but may be either much nearer or far more distant in space than its apparent primary. As the immediate neighborhood of An- tares is otherwise vacant of stars it has been conjectured that this power- ful body may have absorbed into its own gigantic mass many of the nearer
ones, and that it may be still devour- infr whatever vagrant material may be drawn to it by gravitation.
It may be well to state that the name of this star is derived from the Greek, "Anti Ares," or rival of Mars, referring to its color and brightness. The later Greeks called it Kardia Scorpion, and the Latins Cor Scorpii, both meaning the Scorpion's heart. The Arabians' Kalb al Akrab, meant the same thing. A Euphratean name was Dar Lugal, the God of lightning.
THE SUMMER CONSTELLA- TIONS
The September Constellations
The aspect of the stars is very beau- tiful on these clear autumnal evenings. The three chief brilliants are Vega, the steel white star near the zenith; Arcturus, the light orange star in Bootes, 50 degrees to the southwest, and Antares, the ruddy star at the heart of that striking constellation — the Scorpion. Observe that these three stars of the first magnitude form a great triangle whose sides are just fifty degrees in length. All three are giant suns, and each is moving swiftly through the universe.
Vega is the sparkling gem of the small but interesting constellation Lyra. The history of Lyra dates back to prehistoric times. Hercules, one of the heroes of the Trojan war, is im- mortalized by being placed in the heavens between Lyra and Bootes, but the stars are not conspicuous. He had a friend, Hermes, who one day found an empty tortoise shell on the beach, and conceived the idea of fastening strings across it with which he could produce harmonious sounds, and thus the first harp was invented. The achievement was so noteworthy that its emblem, the Lyre, was placed in the sky near Hercules.
Owing to the precession of the equinoxes the North Pole of the heavens is slowly shifting, and in
OFFICERS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
William H. Knight, 621 Witmer St. (Wilshire 354) President
Charles C. Kelso, Chairman Finance Committee Vice-President
Miss Clare Germain Past President
Mrs. Ita Dennison Treasurer
Thomas P. Smith, 852 S. Figueroa St. Chairman Executive Committee
Mars Baumgardt, 626 W. 30th St Chairman Program Committee
T. L. O'Brien, 684 Kip St. (Home 55191, Bdwy. 8173) Secretary
about 11,500 years it will be near the bright star Vega, which will then be- come our brilliant Pole Star.
Near Vega is a small star called Ep- silon Lyrae. A small telescope shows it to be double, and a still more pow- erful instrument discloses the sur- prising fact that each of the compo- nents is a double. The two -stars in each component are supposed to be revolving round a common center of gravity in a period of about 200 years. And furthermore, the two doubles are supposed to be swinging in an enor- mous orbit, also round a common cen- ter of gravity in a period of thou- sands of years.
THE PLANETS IN SEPTEMBER
LECTURES— SEASON OF
1916-1917
Tuesday evening, Sept. 12, 1916 — Rev. Ralph B. Larkin of Ontario will ad- dress the Society on "The Marvel- ous Element — Radium." It will be illustrated by numerous diagrams on the blackboard,
Tuesday evening, Sept. 26, 1916— The noted lecturer of nation-wide fame, Mr, B, R. Baumgardt, will present his new lecture on Astronomy, il- lustrated with lantern views of ex- quisite beauty and perfection of de- tail recently received from the Yerkes and Harvard observatories, which he lately visited.
Tuesday evening, Oct. 10, 1916 — Date open, to be filled.
Tuesday evening, Oct. 24; 1916 — Mr. J. Wood Porter will address the So- ciety on "Matter and Force — Their Relation to Astronomy."
Mercury will be a morning star.
Venus is an exceedingly brilliant morning star.
Mars is an evening star and at the beginning of the month it will be near the bright star Spica in the constel- lation Virgo.
Jupiter is a morning star in Aries.
Saturn is a morning star in Gemini.
Uranus is in Capricornus near Beta, and can be seen on any clear evening with an opera glass.
Neptune is in Cancer and is so far away that it can only be seen with a telescope.
Prof. Edgar L. Larkin, the noted as- tronomer and scientist, will be at home to his many friends and astronomical students, Saturday and Sunday of each week, at the Mt. Lowe observatory.
ASTRONOMICAL EXCURSION
AND BASKET PICNIC TO MT. LOWE OBSERVATORY
Saturday, September 30th The excursion will leave the P. E. station. Sixth and Main streets, at 1:30 p. m. Bring lunch and field glasses. Objects of special interest to be ob- served will be: the giant planet Jupi- ter, the sunset in the Pacific ocean, the double star Albireo at the foot of the Northern Cross, as well as other interesting bodies.
Reduced excursion fare for round trip, $1.25. For information and tickets write or telephone. mornings to the Secretary.
Edited by WILLIAM H. KNIGHT
621 Witmer St.
Published by T L O'BRIEN
684 Kip St. * 55191 and Bdwy. 8173
I
%ia
GIFT ^N 13 1v33
THE HEAVEHS
Monthly Record of the Sfars, Planets, and Astronomical Events
No. 5
LOS ANGELES, OCTOBER, 1916
$1.00 per Year
THE ASTRONOMICAL. SOCIETY OF LOS ANGELES Meets at the Los Angeles High School, North Hill street, on the second and fourth Tuesday evenings of each month, except July and August. An- nual Dues $1.00.
JUPITER DOMINATES THE HEAVENS
That superb object, the giant planet Jupiter, now invites the attention of all astronomical students. Its position is most favorable for observation. While it is 484,000,000 miles from the sun, it is. at the present time, only about 400,000,000 miles from the earth, and presents a disc large enough to show considerable detail.
Jupiter is seen to be crossed by al- ternate white and. colored belts. On the edge of one of them near the equator there is a large reddish spot, somewhat faint at present, but in some years very pronounced in form and color. This spot, which has been growing since it was first observed about forty years ago, is now about 30,000 miles in length by 7,000 in width. Its nature, which has been the subject of many ingenious con- jectures, is still a profound mystery. One of these, which is regarded plaus- ible, supposes that under the thick en- velope of atmosphere saturated with vapor, there is a region of volcanic outbursts which give an unwonted glow to the clouds above. The sub- sidence and then renewal of the vol- canic activity would account for the alternate brightening and paling of the great red spot.
Jupiter has a family of nine satel- lites, four of which are visible in small telescopes, and were first seen by Galileo in 1610. These little bodies, that were seen to be revolving round
Jupiter, fortified the contention of Copernicus that small bodies revolve round larger ones. A fifth satellite was discovered by Barnard in 1892. It was the first notable discovery made with the great Lick telescope. It flies round its primary in a little less than 12 hours, and at a distance from its surface of about 70,000 miles. It is only some 20 miles in diameter and shows a very small disc as it glides across the Jovian sky.
The four larger ' satellites are lo, swiftly revolving round its primary in one day and 18 hours; Europa, in three days and a half; Ganymede in 7 days and 3 hours; and Callisto in 16 days and 16 hours. Ganymede is the largest satellite in the solar system, being 3,550 miles in diameter, and is 664,000 miles distant from Jupiter.
But Jupiter has four additional satel- lites— very small and very distant. The 6th and 7th have nearly the same period, about 8 months, their distance being about 7,000,000 miles. But the 8th and 9th are anomalies in. the solar system, each having a retrograde mo- tion, their exact distances and periods being as yet undetermined. The 9th is so small that it cannot be seen in any telescope — it is only caught on films of long exposure.
THE CONSTELLATIONS IN OCTOBER
Near the zenith is the fine constel- lation Cygnus, the Swan, containing that well known group of stars — the Northern Cross. It is located in the Milky Way at its northern division into two streams. With wings out- spread, each marked by a bright star, it stretches its neck towards the south as if it were about to fly down the
Galaxy between those brilliants, Vega and Altair.
Alpha, the brightest stan in Cygnus, is at the top of the cross, and is called Deneb, though in old charts it has the alternative name Arided. The three t. stars forming the tran'sverse beam :f of the Cross are Epsilom at the left, Gamma, otherwise known as Sadr, in the center, and Delta on the right. Within the triangle formed by Alpha, Gamma, and Epsilon, is one of the vacant spaces in the Milky Way through which one seems to peer into the profound any mysterious depths of interstellar space. It has been called the Northern Coal Sack.
Six degrees northeast of Epsilon, quite near the Coal Sack, is a small star, just visible to the naked eye, but famous for being the nearest star in the northern heavens. It is known as 61 Cygni, and was the first star of which the parallax was measured. Bessel accomplished this in 1838 and found that 61 Cygni is just eight light - years away. It is a double star, both components being of a golden yellow.
One of the chief objects of astron- omical interest in Cygnus is Beta Cygni, a beautiful double star at the foot of the Cross, popularly known as Albireo. One of the suns composing thii& double is of a golden hue, the other a contrasting blue, and a view of them in a telescope of moderate size never fails to charm the beholder.
There are so many other deeply col- ored orange and red stars in Cygnus, that it has been called the Red Re- gion of the sky. But this constella- tion is unusually rich in multiple stars. Espin gives a list of 100 stars in Cyg- nus, that are double, triple, or multiple.
Midway between Sadr and Albireo is a remarkable variable, Chi Cygni. It varies from the 4th to the 13th magnitude in 406 days. But some- times when it arrives at its maximum it is only of the 6th magnitude, thus presenting an interesting problem in astrophysics.
Tn no other constellation are there
so many visual and telescopic stars as in Cygnus. Herschel counted 331,000 in a space of five degrees. Perhaps this may be accounted for on the theory that the solar system, which seems to be situated far within the zone of stars forming the Galaxy, is, according to recent estimates, about 2000 light years nearer that portion in which Cygnus is involved than to the opposite portion in the southern celestial hemisphere.
Aquila, the Eagle, is another bird w^hich, like the Swan, the ancients placed among the constellations. It is also in the Milky Way and its one first magnitude star, Altair, is on the eastern edge of the Galaxy. It is figured on a Euphratean stone dated about 1200 B. C.
In Greece the Eagle was the bird of Zeus, the chief god of mythology. According to another story Jupiter as- sumed the form of an Eagle and is represented as carrying ofif Gany- mede, a beautiful youth, which was figured in a group of stars below Aquila, but which the Romans subse- quently named Antinous, who gave his life for one of the Emperors, and his heroic deed was thus emblazoned in the sky. Two third magnitude stars a few degrees below Altair — one southeast in the right arm and the other southwest, in the left arm of Antinous, form a triangle with that bright star. Two other stars — one near the hand and the other in the foot, form a larger triangle with Altair.
Below Antinous is Sagittarius, the Archer, one of the zodiacal constel- lations. It is immediately east of Scorpio, but has no very conspicuous stars. But if you have a small tele- scope you will be able to see the planet Uranus which was discovered by Herschel in 1781 and produced a great sensation in the astronomical and scientific world at the time. Uranus is 1,782,000 miles from the sun, and is 32,000 miles in diameter — one of the giant planets. It is attended by four satellites of retrograde motion.
RADIUM, THE WONDER
ELEMENT
By Ralph B. Larkin
The study of radium is a study of the intinitessimal. It may be regarded as no less staggering to the imagina- tion than the study of the infinite.
Radium is not merely a matter of curious interest. It also serves as a key to unlock some of the greatest mysteries of the universe. It is a heavy metal, but has not yet been isolated in its elemental state. It is the salts of radium which are used in the investigations, as the bromide or chloride. These resemble common salt in appearance and are in no wise remarkable save for the fact that the radium atoms in them are constantly breaking up, expelling particles with great velocities. These particles are of two general types. The smaller is infinitessimally minute even in compar- ison with the atom. It is the electron, the ultimate particle of which all matter is built up. In some cases electrons are expelled with a velocity of over 100,000 miles per second. The mass of the other type of particle is probably as much as 1700 times as great as the first, and has been proven to be an atom of helium. Here we behold the wonder of one element being born out of another, to the amazement of modern chemistry.
The streams of particles are called rays. There is a third type of ray which is not a stream of particles but of pulsations or waves. This type is exceedingly penetrating, being able to pass through one foot of iron and aflfect a photographic plate on the other side.
The impact of the particles pro- duces heat. In view of the fact that there are great quantities of helium in the sun, it may be that the mystery of accounting for the sun's heat is near its solution. The helium may argue a great release of energy through radio-activity.
It may also be that the earth is not now continuing to cool. The crust
thirty to fifty miles thick is a very poor conductor of heat. There may be enough radioactive material in the interior to more than offset the radia- tion. In that case, the interior is get- ting hotter and ultimately the crust will melt again. The cycles of melt- ing and cooling may have been repeat- ed many times for aught we know.
The tiny electrons are the building bricks of the universe. They are driven off from the millions of great suns in the universe by the pressure of liglit, and are carried in never- ceasing streams to the confines of the universe to form new atoms and new nebulae and new suns and new solar systems. Thus, if the universe is con- stantly disintegrating, it is also being constantly born anew. This equi- librium will go on, being maintained until — well, why should it ever come to an end?
THE BRIGHT STAR CAPELLA
Almost directly north of Orion is the fine constellation Auriga. Its chief brilliant is the first magnitude star Capella. Note that it forms a triangle with Betelgeuze in Orion and the Pleiades in Taurus. Dr. Furuh- jelm of the Helsingfors Observatory finds that a faint star of the 11th mag- nitude, 12 minutes of arc from Capel- la, is physically connected with it, having the same proper motion, both in direction and amount.
As Capella is itself a spectroscopic binary, the discovery of the distant companion is of great interest. Ac- cepting Elkin's value for the parallax of Capella, its distance from our sys- tem is about 41 light years, and the faint companion is about one-seventh of a light year from its primary — something over 8,000,000,000 miles. Remembering that Neptune, the out- ermost planet of the solar system, is only 2,800,000,000 miles from the sun, we are able to form some faint concep- tion of the enormous range of the Capella system. This companion shining by its own light, is probably
OFFICERS OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
William H. Knight, 621 Witmer St. (Wilshire 354) President
Charles C. Kelso, Chairman Finance Committee Vice-President
Miss Clare Germain Past President
Mrs. Ita Dennison Treasurer
Thomas P. Smith, 852 S. Figueroa St Chairman Executive Committee
Mars Baumgardt, 626 W. 30th St Chairman Program Committee
T. L. O'Brien, 684 Kip St. (Home 55191, Bdwy. 8173) Secretary
half as large as the monarch of our own system. Our sun, placed at that distance, would shine only as a star of the 6th magnitude.
The binary character of Capella was discovered by Dr. Campbell of the Lick Observatory. It had been seen elongated in the 28-inch refrac- tor at Greenwich. The two compon- ents revolve round a common center of gravity in a period of 104 days. They are nearly equal in mass and their united mass is about 18 times that of the sun. Their united lustre is 128 times that of the sun. Their distance apart is 52,000,000 miles, equal to a little more than half the distance between the earth and the sun. They do not shine with the same quality of light; one gives a pure solar spectrum, and the other shows a prismatic affinity with Pro- cyon. Later we shall speak of the re- markable spectroscopic binary. Beta Auriga, a star of the second magni- tude, four degrees east of Capella.
ASTRONOMICAL EXCURSION
AND BASKET PICNIC TO
ALPINE TAVERN AND MT.
LOWE OBSERVATORY
Saturday, October 28th
The excursion will leave the P. E. station. Sixth and Main streets, at 9 a. m. Bring lunch and field glasses. Objects of special interest to be ob- served will be: the giant planet Jupi- ter, the sunset in the Pacific ocean, the double star Albireo at the foot of the Northern Cross, as well as other interesting bodies.
LECTURES— SEASON OF 1916-1917
Tuesday evening, Oct. 10, 1916 — Prof. Melville Dozier, on "The Impor- tance of Adopting the Decimal Sys- tem in Business Transactions."
Tuesday evening, Oct. 24, 1916 — Mr. J. Wood Porter will address the So- ciety on "Matter and Force — Their Relation to Astronomy."
THE PLANETS FOR OCTOBER
Mercury will be a morning star dur- ing the latter part of the month.
Venus is a bright morning star, but hastening towards the sun with dimin- ishing splendor. On the Istit will be in Leoi near Regulus.
Mars is still too near the sun to be seen to advantage. It is in the con- stellation Libra.
Jupiter will be the brighest object in the evening sky. Being nearly in opposition, it will be most favorably situated for observation at 9 p. m. Its four larger moons arei visible in small telescopes ,and one or two may be descried in a good field glass.
Saturn is near Castor and Pollux in the western morning sky.
Prof. Edgar L. Larkin, the noted as- tronomer and scientist, will be at home to his many friends and astronomical students, Saturday and Sunday of each week, at the Mt. Lowe observatory.
Edited by WILLIAM H. KNIGHT
621 Witmer St.
Published by T. L. O'BRIEN
684 Kip St. 55191 and Bdwy. 8173
THE HEAȴ^NS
Monthly Record of the Stars, Planets,
jN 13 U33
OF CALir .::iA
No. 6
LOS ANGELES, NOVEMBER,
ER, ^16 $L00 pei;2f^&Pz-'f^
Recent Progress in Astronomical Research
By William
Probably the most important de- partment of work in astronomical re- search thus far in the twentieth cen- tury is embodied in certain discoveries and the conclusions arrived at con- cerning the nature and motions of those numerous, diffuse and distant objects known as nebulae. Within this brief period we have learned that nebulae are moving with great velo- city in various directions Across the celestial sphere, and also toward and from our solar system in the line of sight.
But equally important is the fact that internal movements have been detected, as spectroscopic investiga- tion shows that in some of the great nebulae axial rotation actually exists. In other words, those mighty fields of hazy light, often ten thousands of mil- lions of miles in extent, are revolving around central axes of their own. This is highly suggestive of a process of world formation, going on before our eyes, such as was imagined by La- place in his ingenious theory of the origin of the solar system. Other Universes
We can scarcely doubt that some of the well-defined nebulae — like that of Andromeda and others which have dis- tinct spiral convolutions and apparent centers of concentration, but whose blended light cannot be dissolved into starry systems on account of their almost infinite distance — we cannot doubt that some of these wonderful aggregations of worlds are indepen- dent universes, in magnitude and diver- sity not unlike our own visible sidereal system.
H. Knight
To the intelligent and instructed peoples in some of their habitable worlds, our great and complex sidereal system, with its myriad girdling start* in the Milky Way, its giant suns, Arc- turus, Canopus, Rigel and Antares, gleaming among its otherwise conflu- ent streams of hazy light — to them our system, distant and faint though it may be, must present a spectacle as suggestive to the minds of trained observers as many of the spiral neb- ulae are to the terrestrial astronomers of today.
Collision of Worlds
It was in February, 1901, that Nova Persel suddenly blazed forth from the depths of space, forming a conspicu- ous object in our sidereal universe, where, twenty-four hours previous, no star was visible. As its brightness dwindled during the next few weeks, the photographic film of long expos- ure recorded its expansion into a char- acteristic field of nebulosity, vastly greater than that of our entire solar system.
A reasonable conjecture attributed the phenomenon to the collision of two great worlds. The impact of these bodies, brought together with stellar velocities by their mutual at- traction, instantly generated a tem- perature that reduced them to a mol- ten and even a gaseous state, so that the materials of which they were com- posed, as varied perhaps as those which compose the crust of the earth, were driven by convective currents, and with great velocity, far out into surrounding space — the whole mass self-luminous for the time being, or
illuminated by the blazing central mass, of unknown distance from us — perhaps several hundred light years.
In the course of time the nebula thus produced, having an initial rota- tion started by an impact that would I'Ot, in a million chances to one, be absolutely square and direct, there would, as the rotatory motion was set up, in the course of astronomical ctges, be centers of condensation, pro- duced by gravitational attraction in the denser portions of the nebulous cloud, and sidereal or planetary worlds would be formed. And observers closer than ourselves to this great de- structive and recuperative exhibition of cosmic transformations would wit- ness on a grand scale what Laplace in imagination witnessed when the mat- ter now forming the orderly solar sys- tem was a field of nebulosity extend- mg a thousand million miles beyond onr outermost known planet. Spectroscopic Binaries
Within the last quarter of a century we have become cognizant of a multi- tude of spectroscopic binaries, where two mighty suns, too close to be sep- arated by the most powerful tel escopes, are known to be revolving around a common center of gravity with enormous velocity, and in the very nature of the case producing great tidal prolongations or tongues of flames pointed toward each other. Though these majestic phenomena are not visible to the physical eye, even when supplemented by the most skill- ful optical agencies, yet the trained intellect of man, with its creative im- agination, clearly perceives these mighty suns, blazing with unquench- able fires, pursuing their undeviating course, even as with his physical eye he nightly watches bright Jupiter climbing the cerulean heights of the celestial sphere. Two notable spectro- scopic binaries are Mizar in Ursa Major and Beta Aurigae, above the constellation of Orion.
Within the present century we have
found that Phoebe, the most distant satellite of Saturn, and also two of the recently-discovered outermost satel- lites of Jupiter, have retrograde mo- tions, compelling a modification in some degree of Laplace's nebular the- ory, though not necessarily conflict- ing with its larger conceptions. We do not know but these very small, tel- escopic objects may once have been comets or other vagrant bodies wan- dering through space, and captured by the powerful attraction of these giant planets. The same theory may ac- count for the existence of Barnard's fifth satellite of Jupiter and also for the two tiny satellites of Mars. Radium and Astronomy
When Mme. Curie discovered the new element radium, in the last year of the nineteenth century, no one suspected it would have any cosmic significance, but this remarkable ele- ment impinges upon astronomical re- search in two aspects. Its disintegra- tion results in the production of he- lium. That previously unknown ele- ment Was detected in the corona of the sun in the early 90's by Sir Nor- man Lockyer. It was subsequently obtained from certain earthy minerals, in which it was occluded by Sir Wil- liam Ramsay. Still later Sir J. J. Thomson found that radium is con- stantly projecting into surrounding space ions of helium, and that this process is attended with the produc- tion of heat. Not only so, but radium is itself a product of the slow disinte- gration of uranium.
Now what bearing do these facts have upon astrophysical astronomy? Why, it is found that the spectrum of the Sirian type of stars — the brightest in the heavens — shows the presence of helium in a marked degree. It is thence inferred that there is perhaps an immense basic supply of uranium in those bodies, the disintegration of which produces an incessant and un- limited supply of radium, and further- more that the activity of radium in
circlet of six small stars which mark the location of the Western Fish in the zodiacal constellation Pisces. There are two groups of small stars, the one to the west of Scheat, and the other to the west of Markab, which belong to Pegasus.
Andromeda, the Chained Lady
This splendid constellation is now in a favorable position for observa- tion. Its principal star, Alpheratz, is also, as stated above, the northeastern star of the Great Square. It is a spec- troscopic binary whose two compo- nents revolve round a common center in 97 days, and the system is approach- ing the solar system with a velocity of about 8 miles per second.
Andromeda was the beautiful daugh- ter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, and was freed from her chains by Perseus. All these mythological persons are represented by neighboring groups of stars. Olcott remarks: "The constel- lation Andromeda presents a beauti- ful appearance rising in the eastern sky in the early evening during the months of autumn. Low over -the hills twinkle her chain of stars, sweeping down in a long graceful curve from the Great Square of Pegasus, like tiny lamps swinging from an invisible wire — a chain with which Perseus holds in check his winged steed."
Astronomically, the most interest- ing feature is the great Nebula of Andromeda. As far back as the year 900 a Persian astronomer called it the "Little Cloud," for this and the great Nebula of Orion are the only ones visible to the naked eye. It is probably an enormous aggregation of stars, perhaps yet enveloped in the nebulous cloud from which the stars are being condensed, and lying faf out in space at an enormous distance be- yond the confines of our sidereal sys- tem, and possibly itself an immense sidereal system in the making.
Perhaps the most interesting star is Almaeh (2d magnitude) in the foot of
Andromeda. In 1778 it was found to be a double star — the primary being of a golden color, and its companion a contrasting blue, but in 1842 Struve discovered that the companion itself was a close double. Thus Almach is shown to be a beautiful triple system. The celebrated Bielid meteors have their radiant point near this star. Be- tween Alpheratz and Almach is Mirach in the girdle, also of the sec- ond magnitude.
A NEW OBSERVATORY IN LOS ANGELES
The members of the Astronomical Society will be interested in the an- nouncement that a private observa- tory has been established on the beau- tiful grounds of Mr, W. A. Clark, jr., on rising ground in the western part of the city, fronting on West Adams street, near Cimarron. The structure consists of a substantial brick tower, perhaps forty feet in height, sur- mounted by a shuttered dome on rol- lers and easily moved by hand. The tower is in three * vertical sections. You rise to the second section by means of internal winding stairs, and enter a room large enough to accom- modate 12 or 15 persons. From this level you ascend the third section, or telescope room. Here a fine modern refracting telescope is installed with all the accessories required for mak- ing and recording observations.
The tube, equatorial mounting, and clockwork for keeping the object cen- tered in the field, was manufactured by the well-known firm of Warner & Swasey of Pittsburg, and the fine six- inch object glass, with powers rang- ing from 150 to 600, came from the optical works of John A. Brashear in Pittsburg. It brings out the belts of Jupiter very clearly and shows the four Galilean satellites to great ad- vantage. When turned upon the double star Albireo at the foot of the Northern Cross, it separates the two components and exhibits their beau-
tiful complementary colors. We might enumerate many celestial ob- jects that are brought out in a very attractive manner. It is hoped that persons interested in astronomy will have opportunity from time to time to view the planets, star clusters and nebulae that are beyond the reach of unaided vision. When the next comet makes its appearance we shall hope to make a study of the strange phe- nomena it will present.
ARTIFICIAL CONSTELLATIONS
At the last meeting of the Astro- nomical Society Mr. Mars Baumgardt gave a novel exhibition of a method of showing the constellations with scin- tillating stars by means of black per- forated cards which when held up to an eJectric light exhibit various groups of stars in their true relations to each other, and also showing accu- rately a range of five magnitudes from the first to the fifth, inclusive. The stars in the constellation of Orion were a brilliant *and realistic repro- duction of that beautiful group in the heavens. Mr. Baumgardt's invention will at a later date be available for public and private use.
Look, how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright
gold; There's not the smallest orb which
thou behold'st, But in his motion like an angel sings. — Merchant of Venice.
THE PLANETS IN NOVEMBER
Jupiter is the chief object of inter- est, and is now at its brightest, a very conspicuous object in the evening sky.
Venus is morning star, and is gradu- ally diminishing in brightness.
NOVEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tuesday Evening, Nov. 14. — Dr. Ar- thur S. King, superintendent of the Physical Laboratory of the Mt. Wil- son Solar Observatory, will address the Astronomical Society. Subject: "A Review of Recent Astronomical and Physical Investigations at the Mt. Wilson Solar Observatory."
Tuesday Evening, Nov. 28. — Mr. Mars Baumgardt will give a lecture on "The Scientific Theory of Colors and Their Mode of Combination in the Formation of White Light." It will be illustrated with brilliant ex- periments.
Information regarding class or pri- vate instruction in astronomy can be had by consulting the officers of the Astronomical Society.
Prof. Edgar L. Larkin, the noted as- tronomer and scientist, will be at home to his many friends and astronomical students, Saturday and Sunday of each week, at the Mt. Lowe observatory.
Roll on, ye stars, exult in youthful
prime; Mark with bright curves the printless
steps of time.
— Erasmus Darwin.
TEDS ASTRONOMICAL. SOCIETY OF LOS ANGELES Meet* at the Jjom AiMpeles Higrli School, North Hill street, on the second and fourth Tnesday eTenIn«rs of each month, except July and Augroat. An- nual Dues f 1.00.
WILLIAM H. KNIGHT... President
CHARLES C. KELSO... Vice President
MARS BAUMGARDT Treasurer
THOS. P. SMITH. . .Chrm. Exec. Comm. T. L. O'BRIEN Secretary
THE HEAVENS
Edited by WILLIAMH. KNIGHT
621 Witmer St.
Published by ' T. L. O'BRIEN
684 Kip St. 55191 and Bdwy. 8173
Annual Subscription, $1.00
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THE JIEAVENS
Monthly Record of the Stars, Planets, and Astronomical Events
No. 7
LOS ANGELES, DECEMBER, 1916
$1.00 per Year
Strange Behavior of Encke's Comet
By William
A press dispatch is headed "Old Encke Comet Ahead of Time." But that is misleading. The comet is not "ahead of time," but it is discovered on its expected return earlier than usual, owing to the vigilance of that veteran astronomer, Max Wolf, at Hei- delberg, and his faithful camera. Knowing just where to point his tel- escope, his sensitive film caught the faint object when at a greater distance from the sun than ever before.
Encke's is one of the dozen or more short period Jovian comets that go out about as far as the orbit of Jupiter and then return to the neighborhood of the sun, in periods varying from five to nine years. But Encke's has the shortest period of any comet known. While its perihelion is just within the orbit of Mercury, its aphelion is con- siderably within the orbit of Jupiter.
Johann Franz Encke, for whcm the comet was named, became an astron- omer because he was a born mathema- tician. He was sent to Gottingen and placed under Gauss. But geometers are men, and he took up arms in the Hanseatic legion and marched and fought till Napoleon was exiled at St. Helena. In the course of his cam- paigning he met Lindenau, director of the Seeberg Observatory, and was ap- pointed assistant under him, and be- came his successor in 1822. Thence he went to Berlin in 1825 and superin- tended the building of a new obser- vatory, and remained at its head till 1864, the year before his death.
In 1818 Pons of Marseilles discov- ered an inconspicuous comet, and Encke calculated its elements. He
H. Knight
brought out the surprising fact that it had a period of only three and a quarter years. He did more; he de- tected its identity with a comet seen by Mechain in 1876, and another seen by Caroline Herschel in 1795, and still another seen by Pons in 1805. Encke predicted its return in 1822, and it was seen in the Southern Hemisphere by Brisbane, near the place indicated by Encke.
It was the second time that a comet had returned as predicted since Halley made his successful prophecy, and it made the name of Encke famous. Its period is considerably shorter than that of any other known comet. Kep- ler's remark that comets are consumed by their own emissions undoubtedly has a measure of truth in it. Though extremely tenuous, the matter stream- ing out into the tail must ultimately affect the character of the comet. The impact of the sun's rays upon the ex- ceedingly fine particles of which the comet is partially composed is un- doubtedly the despoiler, and therefore frequent visits to the neighborhood of the sun gradually wear them out, or, rather, deprive them of that portion of refined matter which is subject to the influence of the sun's rays.
Thus Encke's and some of the other short period comets are almost shorn of their tails.
Encke found that the revolutions of his comet were subject to some influ- ence besides that of gravity. After every possible allowance had been made for the pulls, now backward, now forward, exerted upon it by the several planets, there was still a sur-
plus of acceleration left unaccounted for. Each return to perihelion took place about two and a half hours soon- er than received theories warranted. Encke, and also Olbers, explained it as due to the presence in space of some such subtle matter as was long agu invoked by Euler to be the agent of eventual destruction for the fair scheme of planetary creation. It was considered that any check to the mo- tion of bodies revolving round a cen- ter of attraction causes them to draw closer to it, thus shortening their periods and quickening their circula- tion.
If space were filled with a resisting medium capable of impeding, even to a slight degree, the swift course of the planets, their orbits would necessarily be, not ellipses, but very close ellipti- cal spirals, along which they would slowly, but inevitably, descend into the sun. But when Encke's comet re- turned in 1863 its acceleration was diminished nearly one-half.
The visible change of volume in Encke's comet has been extraordinar3^ On October 28, 1828, it was 135,000,000 miles from the sun and its diameter was 312,000 miles — (more than one- third that of the sun. On December 24. about two months later, its dis- tance was 50.000,000 miles and its diam- eter only 14,000 miles. But while at perihelion passage on December 17, at a distance of 32,000,000 miles, its diameter was only 3000 miles.
It has since been a characteristic of Encke's comet that when it first comes into sight, at a distance of about 130,000,000 miles, it has a diameter of about 300,000 ,miles, and when it is near perihelion, at a distance from the sun of only about 33,000,000 miles, its diameter shrinks to 12,000 or 14,000 miles. But as it recedes it expands and resumes its original dimensions. Some other comets show a similar though less striking change.
The density of a comet must be ex- ceedingly small. If a comet 40,000 miles
WILLIAM H. KNIGHT
President Astronomical Society of Los Angeles; Vice-President Los Angeles Chautauqua Asso- ciation ; Former President Southern California Academy of Sciences.
in diameter has a mass equal to only 1 -250,000th of the earth's mass, its mean density would be a little less than 1 -9000th that of the air at the earth's surface — much lower than that of an airpump vacuum. This density is borne out by the fact that small stars can be seen through the head of a comet 100,000 miles in diameter.
But though the quantity of matter in a cubic mile of a comet is small, the density of the constituent particles need not necessarily be so. The comet may be composed of small, heavy bodies, widely separated. The head of a comet may be a swarm of mete- oric stones, some of them several inches in diameter, others only small pebbles, and still others like grains of dust. And these meteoric substances may carry with them a certain quan- tity of enveloping gas.
But how shall we account for the reduction in the visible size of a comet
before Christ, it was the lirst sign of the Zodiac, and is engraved as such on Persian and Mithr^ic gems. The Hyades is a group that forms the let- ter V, with the red star Aldebaran at the top of the left hand stem. Alde- baran is the angry eye of the Bull. In the modern pronunciation of this star the accent is on the ^second syllable, but Mrs. Sigourney, as was common a century ago, placed it on the third syllable.
"Go forth at night, And talk with Aldebaran, where he
flames Tn the cold forehead of the wintry
sky."
The name, like' that of other stars beginning with Al, is of Arabic origin, and was written Al Debaran, meaning the 'follower, that is, it follows the Pleiades.
The Wonderful Pleiades Cluster
The Pleiades is a storied group, about which hang many ancient legends. The keen-eyed shepherds of Mesopotamia, who watched their flocks by night under those clear skies, counted seven stars, and wove a legend about the Seven Sisters. In the more humid atmosphere of Greece only six stars were visible, so their poets invented another legend about the lost Pleiad. But sharp-eyed people today see seven stars on clear even- ings under our California skies.
When Galileo pointed his two-inch telescope to this cluster in 1610, he was astonished to find forty stars in the field of his crude instrument. The six-inch object glass at the Clark Ob- servatory in this city reveals many hundreds of stars in this wonderful group. But the brothers Henry, at the Paris Observatory, with a photo- graphic plate of four hours exposure, were able to count 2326 stars in this miniature universe.
The brightest star, Alcyone, is of the third magnitude. The other five stars ordinarily visible are Electra, Atlas, Maia, Merope and Taygeta.
Celaeno, the seventh or concealed star, is slightly below the sixth magnitude.
"The sister stars that once were seven Mourn for their missing mate in heaven."
— Alfred Austin.
The Pleiades cluster is enveloped in a nebulous haze which is revealed in photographs of long exposure. Dr. Barnard, of the Yerkes Observatory, has detected wisps of the nebula ex- tending far out beyond the limits of the group, implying that many of the worlds in the cluster are still unfin- ished suns, into which the surrounding nebulous matter has not as yet all been condensed.
What is the distance of that cluster from our solar system? Thus far this has been an insoluble problem. Esti- mates have been made ranging from 300 to 700 light years. Even if the lat- ter estimate were correct, the group would be much nearer to us than the stream of stars whose blended light forms the Milky Way. But, although no parallax has been obtained, a small proper motion has been detected, showing that the cluster is moving in a southerly direction.
Thus far the positions of the indi- vidual stars seem fixed with reference to each other, but there is a notable exception to this rule. Six stars, ap- parently within the group, seem to be moving in a northerly direction through it, while two other stars are moving through it in a southerly direc- tion. The supposition is that the six stars mentioned are outside of and far beyond the group, but visible through it; while the other two are much nearer than the cluster but at present in the same line of sight.
CLASSIFYING THE STARS
According to Dr. George E. Hale, we find that more than 100,000 spectra photographed at the Harvard Observa- tory belong to the following classes: White stars, in which the lines of he- lium are conspicuous; stars, also
as it approaches the sun? When at the aphelion of its orbit, the envelop- ing gases may be frozen in the zero temperature which prevails in distant space, in which case the solid particles would reflect the sun's rays and be- come visible. But on approaching the sun many of those frozen particles might melt and be restored to the gas- eous state, thus becoming transparent and invisible.
But let us follow Encke's comet on its visitation in 1888.
Aphelion distance, 4.097 times the distance of the earth from the sun, that is, about 372,000,000 miles, or more than 100,000,000 miles within the orbit of Jupiter.
Perihelion distance, 0.343, or about 32,000,000 miles. Now, the orbit of Mercury is so eccentric that its dis- tance from the sun varies from 28,500,- 000 miles at perihelion to 43,500,000 at aphelion — its mean distance being about 36,000,000 miles. Theerfore, as the comet crosses the orbit of Mercury twice at each perihelion passage, there is a possibility that on some future occasion it may come in collision with the planet, in which case the planet might go unharmed, but the comet would probably be strung out into a meteoric stream and become invisible. The comet of 1866 had formerly ap- proached so near the earth as to be- come partially disintegrated, and a portion of its meteoric constituents entered our atmosphere, forming the brilliant November meteoric displays of 1799, 1833, 1866 and 1899, and these w'll be again repeated in November, 1933 — the period of that comet being about thirty-three and one-fourth years.
Astronomers will watch the Encke comet with great interest as it ap- proaches the sun with constantly ac- celerating velocity, and will note the precipe moment of perihelion, to ascer- tain whether its calculated period of revolution has again been shortened as on former visitations. Encke and
other astronomers conjectured that it might encounter a resisting medium, possibly the ether of space, in which case the perihelion velocity would be diminished, and this diminished mo- mentum would fail to carry the comet out to its normal aphelion distance, and the resulting tendency would be towards a more circular orbit.
Another conjecture was that the comet might encounter meteor swarms when ih the neighborhood of the sun, and thus have its speed retarded. But as this retarding effect has not been noticed in the case of other periodical comets, there is doubt about its being the true cause of Encke's shortened period.
Following are the elements of Encke's Comet for the year 1888:
Perihelion passage June 27
Aphelion distance 4.097
Perihelion distance 0.343
Eccentricity of orbit 0.845
Inclination of orbit. ...13 degrees Period of revolution. .3. 308 years
TAURUS AND ITS SPLENDID STAR GROUPS
The important constellation Taurus, the Bull, now comes upon the scene in these early winter evenings. With lowering head and hery eye he is about to attack the valiant Hunter Orion, who holds the lion skin aloft for a shield. The Bull's horns are termi- nated by the bright stars Beta and Zeta above the head of Orion.
There are two beautiful star clusters in Taurus — the Hyades and Pleiades. The three bright stars in the Belt of Orion point in one direction to these two groups and in the opposite direc- tion to the splendid star Sirius, thus furnishing a ready means of identify- ing the leading features of three con- stellations— Canis Major, Orion, and Taurus.
This constellation derives additional importance from the fact that in the ancient chronology of the Babylon- ians and Egyptians, many centuries
white, in which hydrogen plays the leading role, while traces of the metals l)egin to appear; yellowish stars, like the sun, in which the hydrogen lines, less conspicuous than before, have thousands of lines due to metallic vapors; orange or red stars, in which still fainter hydrogen lines, and stronger metallic lines, have bands of titanium oxide.
Variable stars of the Cepheid class undergo a regular variation in spectral type in a few hours, showing at the same time a corresponding fluctuation in brightness and in temperature.
The spectrum of a sunspot resem- bles that of a red star, which is essen- tially a cooler sun.
Temperature, then, is the main source of observed differences in stel- lar spectra. The white helium stars attain temperatures of perhaps 20,000 degrees. Centigrade. The white hydro- gen stars may exceed 10,000 degrees. The yellowish stars like our sun meas- ure about 6000 degrees. The red stars range from 2000 to 3000 degrees, thus falling within the limits attained by our electric arcs and furnaces.
Thoughts From Frank Crane's Meditations
We can gaze at the splendid pageant of the skies and let a little of its in- finite feeling penetrate into our souls.
How -many of us are companions of the imperial night? How many open up their mortal spirits once in twenty- four hours for the inrush of sidereal calm?
There be dwellers by the seashore that think of nothing but fish and drift- wood; some live in the templed woods and have no thoughts but of cordwood and game; and in the lofty mountains are habitants whose ideas never rise above goats and cows. But all of us live beneath that outspread wonder- sky and get how little of its spiritual call, its message of immensity.
There are schoolboys and girls who are getting an education, yet have no
acquaintance with the angelic globes of light. Night unto night uttereth speech, but it is strange to them. They follow not Orion in his martial strides, and know not Arcturus and the Seven Sisters.
Every night the mighty planet Jupi- ter hangs in the evening sky, under the starry sign of the Great Square of Pegasus, mounting slowly toward the meridian with the progress of the hours, and at midnight glowing in the center of heaven like a lamp for the gods.
Death of Dr. Lowell In our November issue we gave a brief sketch of Dr. Lowell's work in elucidating the mystery connected with the markings on the planet Mars. A few days later, despatches from Flagstaff informed us of his sudden death at the age of 61. His demise is a great loss to the astronomical world. Whether we agree with his conclus- ions that Mars is an inhabited world, or place a different construction on the outcome of his labors, all must admit that his researches have added largely to our knowledge of Martian conditions, and that his work has been useful and his writings illuminating. We trust that the great observatory which he founded and established at Flagstaff will continue its splendid re- search work, for which it is so well fitted, not only on Mars, but also on the other planets, and on those myste- rious objects, the nebulae in distant space.
Address of George E. Hale at Dearborn University
In the contraction of a nebula into a star, heat energy is developed in con- formity with the principle of the con- servation of energy. Helmholtz ap- plied this principle to the contraction of suns in the 1860s, and his work was followed by that of Kelvin, Lane, and Ritter. It shows that if our sun has no other important source of heat, it
cannot have supplied the earth with heat for more than about twenty mil- lion years, and w'ill not give the earth heat more than about ten million years in the future.
But physicists have found that some atoms break up into their constituent parts, in which process an enormous amount of energy is liberated. Possi- bly the sub-atomic energies are im- portant sources for maintaining the heat of the sun and stars. Therefore the sun and earth may be much older and may last much longer than in the above estimate.
DECEMBER ANNOUNCEMENT
Tuesday Evening, Dec. 12 — Mr. Fran- cis G. Pease, Astronomer of the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, will address the Astronomical Soci- ety. Subject: "The Research Work of the Great Sixty-Inch Refractor; What It Has Revealed Regarding the Motions and Structure of Nebu- laet." The lecturer will also give an account of the present condition of the new 100-inch refractor, and state what it is expected to accomplish in astronomical investigations. The lecture will be richly illustrated with new photographic views.
Prof. Edgar L. Larkin, the noted as- tronomer and scientist, will be at home to his many friends and astronomical students, Saturday and Sunday of each week, at the Mt. Lowe observatory.
Information regarding class or pri- vate instruction in astronomy can be had by consulting the officers of the Astronomical Society.
ASTRONOMICAL EXCURSION
AND BASKET PICNIC TO
MT. LOWE OBSERVATORY
Saturday, December 30th
The excursion will leave the P. E. Station, Sixth and Main Streets, at 1:30 P. M., arriving at the observatory at 3 P. M.
There are numerous large sunspots now visible and can be seen with a magnified image before sunset.
The giant planet Jupiter is now in mid-heaven and in the best position for observation that it will be for the next ten years. Its colored belts and four larger satellites will be shown to ad- vantage in the big telescope at the Lowe Observatory.
Dr. Albert Shiels, Superintendent of City Schools, will be a guest of the Astronomical Society. The teachers of the city schools are cordially in- vited to join the excursion.
The excursion fare will be $1.25 for the round trip. Will leave on the re- turn trip about 8:30 P. M.
Tickets and information can be se- cured of Secretary T. L. O'Brien, 684 Kip Street. Telephones — 55191; Broadway 8173.
THE PLANETS IN DECEMBER
Mercury is an evening star far south in Sagittarius.
Venus is a morning star in Scorpio. She is moving towards superior con- junction.
Mars is an evening star in Sagitta- rius.
Jupiter is the most brilliant even- ing star. It is in Pisces.
Saturn is an evening star in Gemini.
THE ASTRONOMICAL, SOCIETY OP LOS ANGELES Meets at the Los Anereles Higrb School, North Hill street, on the second and fourth Tuesday evenlngrs of each month, except July and Augrust. An- nual Dues 91>00.
WILLIAM H. KNIGHT President
CHARLES C. KELSO... Vice President
MARS BAUMGARDT Treasurer
THOS. P. SMITH... Chrm. Exec. Comm. T. L. O'BRIEN Secretary
THE HEAVENS
Edited by WILLIAM H. KNIGHT
621 Witmer St.
Published by T. L. O'BRIEN
684 Kip St. 55191 and Bdwy. 8173
Annual Subscription, $1.00
THE
Monthly Record of the Stars, Planets, and Astronomical Events ''^'^^
No. 8
LOS ANGELES, JANUARY, 1917
7T^
$1.00 per Year ^^^'^
THE FINE CONSTELLATION AURIGA
On account of its two brilliant stars, Capella and Menkalina, this constella- tion is very conspicuous in the north- eastern sky in the early evening. Mid- way between Capella and Betelgueze in the shoulder of Orion, is the bright star Beta Tauri, being in the foot of Auriga, the Charioteer, and at the same time at the end of the upper horn of Taurus, the Bull. Auriga holds a kid (Capella) in his left hand and the constellation was known to the shepherds of the Euphrates val- ley many thousands of years ago.
Capella is the nearest first magni- tude star to the North Pole. In India it was sacred as Brahma Ridaya, the heart of Brahma. The early Arabs called it Al Rakakib, the Driver. Ca- pella is a magnificent spectroscopic binary, about 41 light years distant from our system, and the two great suns of which it is composed together emit about 250 times as much light as our own sun. If the latter were placed at that distance it would shine as a small star of the sixth magnitude.
The two components of Capella, which shine as a single star in the most powerful telescopes, are about 52,000,000 miles apart, and revolve about a common center of gravity in a period of 104 days. There is a small companion, of the 10th magni- tude some 8,000,000,000 miles distant from its double primary, or nearly three times as far away as Neptune is from the sun. What a splendid triple star system thus pictured to the imagination.
Ten degrees east of Capella is the bright star Menkalina, also known as Beta Auriga. This star is also an-
other fine example of a spectroscopic binary, the two magnificent suns, only 7,000,000 miles apart, being obliged to revolve with a' velocity of 150 miles per second, completing their revolu- tion around common center of gravity in three days and 23 hours. Their combined mass is about twenty times that of our own sun, and their com- bined brightness exceeds it in splen- dor many times. Menkalina is flying away from our system with a velocity of 17 miles per second, but it will con- tinue to be a second magnitude star for thousands of years to come. Of such vast proportions are the dis- tances and magnitudes of the stars in our sidereal universe.
WONDERFUL STELLAR FORCES
The most conspicuous object in the evening sky at present is the giant planet Jupiter, the greatest world in the solar system. Jupiter is pulling upon the earth with a force, due to the attraction of gravitation, which is equivalent to about 198 million million tons. What prevents the earth from leaving its orbit and flying to Jupiter? It is swayed sensibly from the true curve of its orbit round the sun, and astronomers have been able to meas- ure the amount of its perturbation. But the sun pulls with such an enor- mous force, 3,600,000 millions of mil- lions of tons, that the earth cannot be diverted from its allegiance to the great central luminary.
*'One cannot grasp the meaning of such a force expressed in figures," says Garrett Serviss. "Let us then try to illustrate what it means. A bar of steel one foot square would sustain a pull of 8,640 tons. If the bar were one mile square, it would sustain a
pull of 240,000,000,000 tons. Now it would take 15,000,000 such bars to resist the pull of the sun upon the earth. Forces of a like nature are act- ing upon the earth from all directions. Every planet and every star is pull- ing it with a force depending upon its distance and its mass. The moon would run away from the earth if the latter did not restrain it with a force amounting to 21,000 million million tons, which is equivalent to the strength of 87,500 bars of steel, each one mile thick. The nearest star in the sky, Alpha Centauri, pulls upon the earth with a force of 90,000,000 tons, while the force exerted between that star and the sun amounts to five million million tons. It is amazing to think of the cobweb of forces in the midst of which we live."
IS THE UNIVERSE LIMITLESS?
Carl Snyder says: "Nature is sim- ple, and therefore understandable. That the universe is unthinkably vast does not imply that it is without limit. That it is composed of an unthinkably great number of suns does not imply that this number is uncountable. If it is limited in extent and in bulk, the mind of man will find a way to measure and weigh it. That its parts are unthinkably small does not imply that the process of division may be carried on indefinitely. There is prob- ably a material substratum, either granular or continuous, and, if such an underlying material exists, all of its properties and actions will one day be known. At the present time there is nothing to indicate that an infinite universe exists. If it does not, if cosmos is finite, the day will come when we shall know all about it that there is to be known.
The evidence of the spectroscope seems fairly conclusive that the ma- terial of the universe is the same, and this material seems dominated by the same forces and the same laws. If, therefore, the stellar universe consists
of several hundred or several thou- sand million suns, it is possible there are millions of other planets upon which life exists. It is conceivable, then, that hundreds of thousands are undergoing an evolution identical with that of our earth, both in character and time; in a word, that in far away places other worlds like ours are just emerging from an animal existence, from infantile superstitions, and be- ginning the study of natural phenom- ena. So far as we can see, life is simply a stage of planetary evolution. Planets, suns, and systems, come and go, wax and wane."
WHY IS SKY BLUE?
Sunlight, which we call white, is composed of light rays of different colors — red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. It can be broken up into its constituent colors in various ways. If it passes through a transparent prism (like the crystals that hang from a chandelier) or if it falls on a surface which has almost invisibly minute irregularities (like mother-of-pearl or the wing of a but- terfly) we see the rays into which sun- light has been separated. These phe- nomena are observed when light is not absorbed, says Popular Science Monthly.
Hold a piece of red glass in front of flame and we see only red. Rays of all other colors have been absorbed. The natural colors of the objects we see about us, leaves, flowers, books and chairs, depend upon absorption. A green leaf throws back chiefly green rays; the rest are absorbed. So, the natural color of everything in nature is the unabsorbed residue from full white light. There is no such thing as color by itself.
A swarm of minute particles, scat- tered in the path of white light, will break it up, like the surface of mother- of-pearl. If the particles happen to be of just the right isze and the spaces between them just the right distance,
they will absorb rays of one color only and throw off the rest. The atmos- phere is filled with countless dust par- ticles, and their size and spacing is such that they scatter rays which we call sky blue. Nearer the horizon, larger particles turn the blue into white; this happens above a dusty town and when mists or clouds hang above us. All that is left of white sunlight, after passing through many miles of blue-scattering air, appears in the hues of sunset. The size and spacing of dust particles as well as the angle at which sunlight strikes them determines the color of the sky.
VERSATILE FEATURES OF ASTRONOMY
The science of astronomy, like all other great departments of science, has been largely specialized, and corps of astronomers are engaged in pursu- ing their investigations in many dif- ferent fields. If we take up any special branch and diligently study it we find that we are entering an ever widening field of investigation, always opening up new realms of thought and specu- lation, and the whole domain of dis- covery ever broadens to the view, so that we gradually obtain, juster con- ceptions of the grand universe we are exploring.
Among the principal departments of astronomical research are the nature and constitution of the sun, the plane- tary system, the moon and its influ- ence on the tides, the origin of the belt of asteroids, the strange features connected with Saturn's rings, the va- garies and ultimate destiny of comets, the sidereal universe, double and mul- tiple stars, the fascinating soeculations regarding variable stars, the myriad suns fo the Milky Way, the ever in- creasing and unfathomable mysteries of nebulae — perhaps island universes in the profound depths of space far ex- terior to our own sidereal universe.
Volumes can be written about either of the above departments of astron-
omical science without exhausting the subjects. We stand on this little speck of the universe which we call the earth, but our minds, equipped with the wings of imagination, and guided by sober mathematical formulae, reach out toward the infinite spaces, and behold magnificent flashing worlds fly- ing with unthinkable velocity, but under the perfect control of inexor- able law, through realms of supernal splendor. These unfettered minds are truly sparks of the divine, over ruling, all-pervading Essence of Being.
— W. H. K.
PROF. DOZIER'S LECTURE ON THE TIDES
A thoroughly scientific explanation of the phenomena of the tides was listened to with close attention by an audience which tested the capacity of the hall. Two forces — the moon com- paratively near, astronomically speak- ing, and the sun, a mighty mass — act upon the fluid bodies which cover three-fourth's of the earth's surface. As the oceans, in the daily rotation of the earth, pass beneath these two heavenly bodies, their waters are lifted by the force of the attraction of gravitation slightly above their normal level from two to ten feet, ac- cording to the depth of the waters and the topography of the coasts. When they act together, on the same or opposite sides of the earth, a high tide is produced, but when they pull at right angles to each other we have a low tide. When there is a long narrow bay with a wide mouth, like the Bay of Fundy, the tide rushes in with great force and piles up the wa- ters much higher than normal. The sweep and direction of the tides over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans was finely illustrated on the blackboard. Prof. Melville Dozier was formerly Assistant Superintendent of City Schools and Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy in the State Normal School.
spiders and the Stars
Spiders as an aid to astronomy are recognized to such an extent that cer- tain species are cultivated solely for the fine threads they weave. No sub- stitute for the spider's thread has yet been found for bisecting the screw of the micrometer used for determining the positions and motions of the stars. Not only because of the remarkable fineness of the thread are they valu- able, but because of their durable qual- ities. The threads of certam spiders raised for astronomical purposes with- stand changes in temperature, so that often in measuring sun spots they are uninjured when the heat is so great that the lenses of the micrometer eye- pieces are cracked. These spider lins are only one-fifth to one-seventh of a thousandth of an inch in diamter, compared with which the threads of the silkworm are large and clumsy.
LECTURE ANNOUNCEMENTS
THE PLANETS IN JANUARY
The giant planet Jupiter is still the brightest object in the heavens, being a little past the meridian at 9 o'clock. Jt is in the constellation Pisces.
Saturn is conspicuous in the eastern sky, in the constellation Cancer. Its rings still show to good advantage. It will continue to be the evening star for several months.
Venus is still the bright morning star, but gradually approaching the sun. It rises about an hour before sunrise, and can be seen throughout the dawn.
Mercury is an evening star, so near the sun that it will soon be invisible.
Tuesday evening, Jan. 9 — The Society will be addressed by Mr. Wm. A. Spalding, former president of the Southern California Academy of Sciences. Subject: "Long Range Forecasts," touching upon meteor- ological, seismic, and cosmic phe- nomena. Illustrated by maps, dia- grams, and blackboard sketches. Meetings at the Los Angeles High school, and open to the public.
Tuesday evening, Jan. 23 — Regular meeting of the Society. Open for general discussion. Members are requested to suggest topics for the occasion. Remarkable icomets of the 19th century will be referred to by the President.
Tuesday evening, Feb. 13 — Prof. Homer Martin will address the So- ciety on the "Poetry of Astronomy," giving citations from the ancient and modern poets on this inspiring theme. It will be a classical and scholarly production.
Prof, Edgar L. Larkin, the noted as- tronomer and scientist, will be at home to his many friends and astronomical students, Saturday and Sunday of each week, at the Mt. Lowe observatory.
Information regarding class or pri- vate instruction in astronomy can be had by consulting the ojfficers of the Astronomical Society. ^
THE ASTRONOMICAL. SOCIETY OF L.OS ANGEIiES Meets at the L.os Angreles High School, North Hill street, on the second and fourth Tuesday evenings of each month, except July and August. An- nual Dues 91.00.
WILLIAM H. KNIGHT President
CHARLES C. KELSO... Vice President
MARS BAUMGARDT Treasurer
THOS. P. SMITH. . .Chrm. Exec. Comm. T. L. O'BRIEN Secretary
THE HEAVENS
Edited by WILLIAM H. KNIGHT
621 Witmer St.
Published by T. L. O'BRIEN
684 Kip St. 55191 and Bdwy. 8173
Annual Subscription, $1.00
JN 13 1j33
THE /HEAVENS
Monthly Record of the fetstfs, Planets, and Astronomical Events
No. 9
LOS ANGELES, FEBRUARY, 1917
$1.00 per Year ^ .^ 's^t
Some of the brilliant Celestial Visit ors of the Nineteenth Century.
Is a Great Comet Now Due? "^~
By William H. Knight /k^" *' ^
is the latter,/ijif '^kfc%^e its /notion will soon l>^^etecVe!rf.-^ ^«"
The astxonom^rA feag^erlj^. resumes his observpfions^^nd after^an almost agonizing 'wat^^of §e,yerai hours, at length assures himsdtf that it is ap- proaching one^ioi: -the adjacent stars, and is receding from the opposite one. Yes, this tiny patch of cloud, so faint that only the sharp eye of an astron- omer can detect it, actually moves, it is, a veritable comet.
He instantly telegraphs the discov- ery, if in America to the Harvard Ob- servatory, or if in Europe to Berlin; and from these centers the news is transmitted to every observatory in the world and in less than 24 hours it is published in all the newspapers in both continents, every telescope is turned upon the approaching stranger, and it is welcomed into our solar fam- ily with a right royal welcome, for there is a possibility that it may have a brilliant career and become one of the famous comets of the age.
The first business of the astrono- mer is to note the exact position of the comet in three successive obser- vations, taken several days apart. From these data, and from abstruse calculations based upon them cover- ing hundreds of pages, a probable or- bit will be deduced, and he will be able to determine the future course of the stranger; whether it will approach the vicinity of the earth, or is headed for some far distant point; whether it is pursuing a closed elliptical orbit, in which case it will return to us again at some future time, or is com- ing down to the sun with such tre- mendous velocity that after wheeling round that orb it will rush off again into distant space along the curve of a parabola, and finally leave the do- minion of the sun and after a journey covering aeons of ages, plunge with equal impetuosity into the heart of some other stellar system — that of Alpha Centauri, or Sirius, or Procyon, or Capella, or Aldebaran.
Of the great comets that flashed into our skies during: the 19th cen
Nine remarkable comets shone in our nocturnal skies during the 19th century, being an average of one bright comet every eleven years. Of course the number of faint and tele- scopic comets was very much greater, averaging about five per annum since 1870. during which period there has been a large increase in the number and equipment of astronomical ob- servatories.
With the exception of Halley's comet, which visited us in 1910 on a return voyage from distant space, we have had no great spectacular comet since the bright one which appeared on well remembered October morn- ings in the year 1882, a third of a century ago.
What we are now looking for and may reasonably expect in the next few years, is a great flaming monster like some of those which have startled and alarmed the generations of the past.
It shall glare down upon us with a fiery nucleus as bright as Sirius and be surrounded by a coma as large as the planet Jupiter. Its flaming tail will extend along 40 degrees of the celestial sphere, and measure 100,- 000,000 miles in length. Coming from the far depths of interstellar space, it will bear down upon our little family of worlds in the neighborhood of the sun with the unthinkable velocity of 50, 100, or even 200 miles per second.
The fortunate discoverer of this hypothetical visitor will be sweeping the heavens with a comet-seeker some starry night in the near future and his attention will be suddenly arrest- ed by a faint, nebulous object floating into the field of his telescope. He hurriedly leaves his eyepiece, rushes to his library, and nervously scans the pages of Dreyer's catalogue of Neb- ulae. The object he has been examin- ing is not in the list. It is then a hitherto uncatalogued nebula, or a comet, with a high probability that it
tury, the first very conspicuous one was that of 1811. It was a magnifi- cent object, with a flaming appendage 25 degrees in length, about the dis- tance between Sirius and Procyon, and of the extraordinary breadth of six de- grees. The two outer stars of Orion's Belt are three degrees apart. This comet was visible to the naked eye for many months and was followed by the telescope for a year and a half. It will not return to us again until it has accomplished a journey that will take it out into space 40,000,000,000 miles, a distance of fourteen times farther than the orbit of the outer planet Neptune, and that will consume a period of 3065 years.
How much space on the page of his- tory will be occupied by the presi- dents of our republic, the premiers of Great 'Britain, the Kaisers of Ger- many, the authors and philosophers and commercial magnates of the pres- ent age, when the great comet of 1811 again flashes into our skies?
A long period of 24 years elapsed be- fore the next notable comet — that of 1835 — appeared. It was Halley's per- iodic comet, and its advent had been predicted. It exhibited a tail 47 de- grees in length, or half the distance from the horizon to the zenith. Its period is 75 years and it visited us again in 1910, as all present will re- member. It was a brilliant object in the early mornings of the month of May in that year. At perihelion it came midway between Mercury and Venus, moving with a velocity of 30 miles per second. It will reach its aphelion, 3,000,000 miles be5^ond the orbit of Neptune, about the middle of this century, and will then be moving at a snail pace of only three miles per second. How manj^ persons in this city will live to see its return in 1986? Astronomers have traced its previous appearances from historic allusions presumably referring to it as far back as the year 11 B. C.
The next comet to attract univer- sal attention was the brilliant object which startled the world in February, 1843, eight years after Halley's had disappeared. It came up from below and unheralded, and with a velocity of 266 miles per second swung across the face of the sun and so close to its surface that it must have grazed the corona, the pearly emanation seen in total eclipses. It came within 77,000 miles of the sun's surface^ and it seems marvelous that the mighty at- traction of that body did not arrest
its progress and absorb the tenuous object in its fiery bosom. But the swift comet escaped and projected a tail of pure white light at an estimated distance of 200,000,000 miles into space, more than twice the distance of the earth from the sun. As I saw it at the age of seven this wonderful band of light extended from the hori- zon to the zenith, and it made a clear and indelible impression on my mind.
As the Comet of 1843 moved in a parabolic orbit it is believed that the velocity with which it flew away from the sun was sufficient to carry it be- yond the control of that body. Might it not then pass across the border line into the sphere of influence ex- erted by the nearest stellar world — Alpha Centauri, four and a third light years distant. Then, rushing with unabated energy through that brilliant system it would, perhaps, speed next in the direction of the blazing double suns Sirius and his companion, eight and a half light years distant, and so, in restless wanderings, it would visit star after star, exciting the wonder and admiration of inhabited worlds, till eventually, after the lapse of mil- lions of aeons in tireless flight, it would at last get tangled up and lost amid the mazes of the 2300 worlds which compose the miniature universe known to us as the Pleiades. What a journey of infinite surprises it would be if we could take passage on board such a comet! But there would be interminably long waits between stations.
Fifteen years after the brilliant ap- parition of 1843 the splendid comet discovered by Donati illumined the midnight skv. It was at its brightest in October, 1858, and is well remem- bered by many persons now living as one of the finest celestial objects they ever witnessed. It threw out a tail 45,000,000 miles in length, and at one time the bright star Arcturus shone through this shimmering appendage with undimmed splendor. The tail was gracefully curved like a scimitar brandished by a celestial giant, due, it was claimed, to the rapid sweep sweep round the perihelion curve — a great contrast to the sluggish motion of less than one-fourth of a mile per second while traversing its aphelion eleven hundred years ago, at a dis- tance of 15,000,000,000 miles from the sun.
The generations living towards the end of the 39th century will anticipate with eager interest the return of this
wonderful stranger. Its motions, be- havior, constituent elements, and va- garies, will be studied with the mar- vellous agencies and instruments of that advanced age of achievement, and by astronomers and physicists of transcendent genius, who will con the meager data vouchsafed by the rec- ords of 1858, and will add their rich store of observations, deductions and conclusions, to be handed down to their successors of the 60th century, even as Seneca preserved and record- ed his notes of the great comet 2000 years ago, for the grandeur and value of a phenomenon then uncompre- hended, was thus snatched from un- merited oblivion.
As in the case of Encke's comet the diameter of the nucleus of Donati's comet continually diminished as it ap- proached the sun. On July 19 it was 5600 miles in diameter, about two- thirds the diameter of the earth; on August 30 it was 1000 miles less in diameter; on September 23 it was only 1280 miles; and on October 5 was reduced to the comparatively in- significant figure of 400 miles.
What is the explanation of this strange diminution of the nucleus? When the comet is at the zero tem- perature of distant space its gases are frozen into solid particles and are thus capable of reflecting the rays of the sun. But when the comet draws nearer the sun and is subjected to the increasing heat of his rays, the outer layers of frozen particles are melted and become transparent, and only the inner core of solid meteoritic material reflects the sun's rays.
And it is these melted gases, continually agitated by convection currents, like the boiling water of a tea kettle, that doubtless projects those luminous envelopes towards the sun while the impact of the sun's rays projects fine luminous particles from the comet out into space in a direc- tion opposite the sun.
A bunch of comets made their ap- pearance suddenly and unexpectedly in the years 1860, 1861, and 1862, re- spectively. That of 1861 was the most notable from the fact that on June 30 of that year the earth passed through its tail, which was a trifle of 24,000,000 miles in length. But the only visible evidence of being enveloped in that extremely tenuous substance was a singular yellowish phosphorescent glare pervading the overhead atmos- phere, something like a diffused aurora borealis. Fifty years later, in
1910, the earth passed through the tail of Halley's comet and it likewise proved to be entirely harmless. Just a dozen years now elapsed be- fore the advent of Coggia's great comet of 1874. On July 3 its tail was 25,000,000 miles long, and on July 21 the comet was only 26,000,000 miles from the earth and in a good position for observation. Remarkable changes occurred in the gaseous envelopes of the nucleus. Successive layers were projected forwards and then trailed back into the tail, which at one time was 43 degrees in length. Coggia's comet requires a period of 57 cen- turies to make an entire revolution in its highly elongated orbit; conse- quently it was last previously seen about the time Jacob's Ladder formed a highway between earth and heaven. Perhaps our brilliant comet was the angelic light he saw at the top.
It was only eight years after Cog- gia's comet vanished from our sight in 1874 when one of the most remark- able comets of the century adorned the morning skies of September, 1882. Its nucleus was greatly elongated and it divided while under observation into four bead-like nuclei, as if a process of disruption were going on, caused either by the intense heat of the sun, or by the unequal attraction of that body on the different parts of the great non-cohesive bulk of the comet. Some of the orbital elements approximated those of the great comet of 1843, and also of two comets known as those of 1880 and 1887 which shone only in the southern hemisphere. These four comets, name- ly, 1843, 1880, 1882 and 1887, all passed quite near the sun at their respective perihelions, and were called the "four sun-grazers." It has been intimated that they had a common origin, or came from a common source in dis- tant space. It is, as yet, an insolv- able mystery.
It is now 35 years since the great comet of 1882 was the subject of care- ful observation and keen speculation, and it is high time that a new one with striking features and huge pro- portions should grace our celestial scenery. Many improvements have been made in astronomical equipment during the third of a century which has elapsed, and we shall study the new stranger, not only telescopically, but photographically and spectro- scopically as well. We bid hearty welcome to the approaching but as yet unseen guest.
CASSIOPEIA, THE BEAUTIFUL
This, interesting constellation is generally recognized by the group of stars known as Cassiopeia's Chair. But one of the chair stars is rather faint, and the remainder of. them forms the well known irregular letter "W," which, once traced, is never forgotten. Alpha, at the left foot of the chair, sometimes known as Sche- dar, was formerly the brightest, but at present Beta, at the right foot of the chair, slightly excels Alpha in luster. Polaris lies midway between these stars and the Dipper.
Cassiopeia was the wife of King Cepheus and the mother of beautiful Andromeda who was chained to a rock, but was rescued from a sea monster by the gallant Prince Per- seus. It was near the faint star of the chair that the famous nova of 1572 suddenly burst forth and shone for a short time brighter than Venus. It was the first of the novas to attract scientific attention, and led Tycho Brahe henceforth to devote himself to astronomical research.
AT LOWE OBSERVATORY
A trip to Southern California is not complete without including Mt. Lowe and the Lowe Observatory, where the great 16-inch refractor is open to vis- itors Saturday and Sunday evenings. Prof. Edgar L. Larkin, the noted sci- entist and astronomer, is in charge.
LECTURE ANNOUNCEMENTS
Tuesday evening, Feb. 13 — Prof. Homer Martin will address the So- ciety on the "Poetry of Astronomy," giving citations from the ancient and modern poets on this inspiring theme. It will be a classical and scholarly production.
Tuesday evening, Feb. 27. — Prof. Mel- ville Dozier will address the So- ciety on the Seven Solar and Lunar Eclipses of the Year 1917. An orrery and blackboard diagrams will illustrate the lecture.
SPECTROSCOPIC BINARY
I have a Bulletin (No. 288) from the Lick Observatory, covering six large quarto pages, detailing the result of three years' observations of the binary b4 Centauri. This star belongs to the spectral class B5, which is included in the group called Orion or helium stars. The period of this binary is nearly 7 days — to be exact, 6.927 days. The combined masses exceed that of the sun several times, but their ratio to each other is problematical because the inclination of their orbit is not known, but is suspected to be about 44° to the angle of vision. In that case A, the larger one, would be about four times the size of B, the smaller one.
The parallax of this binary is too small to be definitely assigned, but as an approximate result of 3 measure- ments, is hypothetically fixed at 0.007, which would mean a distance of about 460 light years. As it is nearly of the 4th magnitude, a star at that distance must necessarily be a gigantic sun.
Address of Forest Ray Moulton on Mathematical Astronomy, at Semi-Centennial of Dear- born University
The one central law on which all discussion of celestial evolution is based is the la'w of gravitation. That law, as it was expressed by Newton in 1688, is correct to a degree of approx- imation that has not been attained in any other branch of science.
The great Frenchman Poincare, whose brilliant genius has dazzled the whole world, produced a work on the problem of three bodies which owed its inspiration to George W. Hill, of Washington, who, in a brilliant series of papers in 1877, inaugurated a new epoch in the Lunar Theory. Hill was highly original, but Poincare added to originality and the highest order of genius a perfect command of all the resources of modern mathematics. Un- questionably his work will stand out for centuries like that of Newton and Laplace.
THE ASTRONOMICAL. SOCIETY OF liOS ANGELES
MeetH at the Los Angeles High School, North Hill street, on the second and fourth Tuesday evenlngrs of each month, except .July and Augrust. An- nual Dues $1.00.
WILLIAM H. KNIGHT President
CHARLES C. KELSO... Vice President
MARS BAUMGARDT Treasurer
THOS. P. SMITH. . .Chrm. Exec. Comm. T. L. O'BRIEN Secretary
THE HEAVENS
Edited by WILLIAM H. KNIGHT
621 Witmer St.
Published by ^^v
T L O'BRIKN
684 Kip St. ' 55191 and Bdwy. 8173
Annual Subscription, $1.00
Crxm,
THE HEAVENS
Monthly Record of the Stars, Planets, and Astronomical Events
No. 10
LOS ANGELES, MARCH, 1917
$1.00 per Year
A New Spiral Nebula
Evidence of Its Astounding Internal and Radial Velocities By William H. Knight
In his interesting lecture before the Astronomical Society a few weeks ago Astronomer Francis G. Pease of the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, manipulator of the great 60-inch re- flector, spoke of a spiral nebula whose remarkable motions have recently been noted, both at Mount Wilson by Mr, Pease, and at the Lowell Obser- vatory by Mr. Slipher.
A photograph of the nebula shows it to be a spiral, seen almost edge on. The nebula is crossed by a dark streak which appears to absorb or obstruct the light. This streak seems to lie at the periphery, being possibly an outer ring of cooler material, or perhaps the unilluminated edge of the thin disk of nebulous matter surrounding the bril- liant nucleus.
The radial velocity of the nebula away from the observer is 1180 kilo- meters (731 miles) per second accord- ing to Pease, and a few miles less ac- cording to Slipher. An equally sur- prising rotation velocity is also de- tected. At a point two seconds of arc from the center of the nucleus the apparently tenuous substance of the nebula seems to be whirling with a speed of 330 kilometers (204 miles) per second.
This high velocity of rotation is op- posed to our conceptions of the sta- bility even of a solid body. It is still more inconceivable that a nebulous object should rotate with such an enormous velocity without throwing off large masses of its content at its outer edge.
When we reflect that Mercury, the
swiftest of our planets, flies in its or- bit near the sun only at the rate of 30 miles per second, and that the phe- nomenal comet of 1843, almost grazed the photosphere of the sun with a computed velocity of 266 miles per second — the swiftest motion of any heavenly body hitherto recorded, what then must we think of a vast body, perhaps exterior to our own sidereal universe, darting away from the mighty aggregate attractions of all the vast congeries of mighty suqs in our own universe with the unthink- able velocity of 730 miles per second? We cannot help wondering if the ob- servations of two reputable astrono- mers, each provided with powerful in- struments, are accurate and depend- able, and their conclusions reliable. On what a magnificent scale are the phenomena of world systems being carried on in the profound depths of space beyond the exterior boundaries of our own sidereal universe.
WHAT A NOVA DISASTER MAY MEAN
The telescope and the camera dis- close the existence of about 500,000,- 000 stars down to the 19th magnitude, and all these stars are suns — many of them doubtless dispensing light and heat to surrounding planets. That these blazing suns are in rapid motion was one of the discoveries made by Edmond Halley, whose name is iden- tified with the great comet of 1910. The stars in this maze of worlds are moving with varying velocities, from two miles per second to the enormous
speed of more than 100 miles per sec- ond in some instances. Moreover they seem to be moving in every con- ceivable direction, some of them across the line of sight, and others towards or away from, our solar sys- tem.
But there is reason to believe that there are even more dark worlds, planets or extinct suns, than of those which are shining by their own light.
Now, when a star like 1830 Groom- bridge is rushing to its unknown goal with the tremendous velocity of 150 miles per second, 200 times faster than a shot leaves the cannon's mouth, what is to prevent this celestial dere- lict from plunging into some one of the thickly strewn worlds of the visi ble' universe that may be lying near its path.
Here let us give play to our imag- ination and behold a massive dark world, ten times the size of Jupiter in dimensions, coming from infinite space, and headed towards the solar system. What would be the consequence? When it had reached a distance six times that of Neptune, say 17,000,000- 000 miles, it would become telescopic- ally visible, shining by the reflected light of the sun. It would require 34 years to traverse the space which would bring it to the orbit of Nep- tune, when it would shine like a star of the fifth magnitude. Meantime its precise course would be accurately determined by astronomers.
They would find, perhaps, that it would safely pass down through our maze of planets, satellites, asteroids and comets, without colliding with any of these bodies, but they might not be quite certain whether it would clear the great central sun in its wild course. In less than three years from the time it passed Neptune's orbit it would glide with fearful velocity past the earth — a huge ball of light, 43 times the diameter of the moon. By this time the astronomers would know that in 19 days, on a bright June
morning, at 5 a. m., the vagrant world would crash into the eastern limb of the sun, and the result could be fairly well forecasted. Both worlds would be almost instantaneously shattered. The heat generated would melt and vaporize the most intractable sub- stances known.
The mutual explosions of the two bodies would send myriads of frag- ments far out into surrounding space, and some of them would presently go whizzing towards and past the earth. But the most terrifying effect for dwellers upon the earth would be the emission of overwhelming masses of fiery mist with its tongues of many colored flames which would be shot out so far as quickly to envelope the earth and other planets, till they reached a distance far, far beyond the orbit of Neptune.
And astronomers in other starry S3^stems would observe a grand Nova shining out with phenomenal splendor in this part of the sidereal universe, and presently they would note a new nebula of dull luminosity spreading over an immense field in this region of their sky.
For years before the impending ca- tastrophe dwellers on the earth would be haunted with a vague fear of a terrible doom that the most skillful engineers and scientists would be un- able to avert. The rich and the poor, monarchs and peasants, the powerful and the weak, masters of ruthless cor- porations and the humblest workmen, would alike be involved in the over- whelming catastrophe. Everything combustible would be consumed in a few hours after the fierce outburst of flames had reached the earth and thenceforth it would roll a blackened planet, its mighty cities, its vast for- ests, its proud warehouses, its thun- dering railway trains, its majestic steamships, its orchards, vineyards, and smiling fields of grain, and every living creature, all, all, buried in one holocaust of oblivion.
Why do I invoke your imagination to contemplate such a scene of ruth- less devastation? Within historic times, and since Hipparchus had his attention drawn to a star shining with unaccustomed brightness, in the year 120 B. C, 29 novae, or new stars have been recorded up to the present time. None of them so far as we know were less than 100 light years away, and therefore they must have been intrinsically great suns.
If only one out of ten of those suns had inhabited planets revolving round them, then at least three worlds, pos- sibly comparable with our earth in the evolution of living beings, would be involved in a catastrophe similar to the one I have pictured to your minds.
Then again, it must not be forgotten that our solar system, the mighty sun and all its circling planets and lesser worlds, is moving with a speed of twelve and a quarter miles per second, more than a million miles per day, or approximately four hundred million miles per year, and at present in a di- rection towards the bright star Vega, almost on the border of that wonder- ful star stream — the Milky Way.
We know not what strange, vagrant worlds, as yet unseen and undreamed of, our sun may encounter in its un- deviating path towards those shim- mering worlds in the Galaxy. But we do know that for some millions of years in the remote past, humanly speaking, while the earth life has been evolving from protozoa to intel- ligent man, no such catastrophe has overtaken us.
We know furthermore, that among the 500,000,000 suns of which our camera takes note, there have been only 29 recorded cases of probable world collisions in the last 2000 years. Therefore the chances for harm from such a source are reduced to an al- most infinitesimal minimum, and we have the strongest reasons for indulg- ing in perfect optimism. My object
has been to give you a realistic pic- ture of what may have happened in one of those burning worlds in dis- tant space that have occasionally blazed forth with unwonted splendor and challenged the attention of thoughtful minds. — W. H. K.
FOUR GIANT PLANETS
There now shine in the evening skies the two largest planets in the solar system. The giant planet Jupiter is a little west of the meridian in the con- stellation Pisces — the Fishes. Below the western fish is the bright star Fomalhaut in the Southern Fish.
The other giant planet, Saturn, the most wonderful object known to us in the heavens, has for several months been nearly in a line with the Twin stars Castor and Pollux, and is now extending easterly from the latter towards Cancer, the Crab. The latter constellation is not marked by any bright stars, but within an irregular quadrilateral of small stars is a very interesting cluster known as Presepe, the Bee Hive. It shows very well in an opera glass.
You will remember that a year ago Saturn was in Gemini, but since that time it has moved half a zodiacal sign to the east. It takes Saturn 29^ years to complete the circuit of the celestial sphere, thus moving over a little less than half a sign each year. The great planet is still very favorably situated for observation in telescopes. It is nearly in opposition, and its rings are tilted at an angle that gives them a very beautiful and picturesque appear- ance.
Ancient astronomers only knew five planets — Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupi- ter, and Saturn, for the earth, far from being a planet, was supposed to be the center of the universe. The periods of revolution of the planets named were well known, and the ancient as- tronomers rightfully inferred that Saturn was the most distant.
In the eighth edition of an astron- omy published by Joseph Harris in
1757, 160 years ago, the distance of the earth from the sun was set down as 81,000,000 miles. We now know it to be about 93,000,000 miles. The whole scheme of the solar system was at that date correspondingly reduced. Accordingly the distance of Saturn was given as 777,000,000 miles. We now know it to be 886,000,000 miles. It was then regarded as the outer planet and the farthest limit of the system.
But a quarter of a century later — in 1781 — Sir William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus, 1,782,000,000 miles distant, twice the distance of Saturn, and this important discovery enorm- ously extended the limits of the solar system. No wonder it gave Herschel immediate and lasting fame. Six years later he discovered two of its four satellites. And it was by the per- turbations of the planet Uranus in its orbit that Leverrier was enabled to demonstrate the existence of still an- other planet beyond Uranus, which he did in 1846.
But Uranus and Neptune are re- spectively 32,000 and 34,000 miles in diameter, and although they are giants as compared with the earth, both to- gether are not equal to the dimensions of Saturn, which is 72,000 miles in diameter — more than nine times that of the earth, and 760 times its bulk.
The astronomer of 1757 said that Saturn has no less than five satellites. We now know that it has no less than ten, and that the two outer ones move in a contrary direction — retrograde. In that year, 1757, Herschel was nine- teen years old and emigrated from Germany to London, where he became a leader of a military band. Years afterwards, becoming interested in as- tronomy, he constructed his own tele- scope with which he made notable dis- coveries besides that of Uranus.
In mythology Saturn was originally the Greek god Cronus, which name was. changed to Saturn in ancient Italy. Cronus was the youngest of the Titans — the children of Sky (Ura-
nus) and Gaea, the earth. Cronus (Saturn) swallowed all his children except the youngest, Zeus, whose name was changed in Italy to Jupiter, and who became the chief deity. All the planets and their satellites have received mythological names, those known in ancient times having re- ceived their Greek names as early as the fourth century B. C.
Of the ten satellites of Saturn, the largest. Titan, is upwards of 3,000 miles in diameter, being a third greater than that of our moon, and surpassing the planet Mercury in size. Its dis- tance from Saturn is 771,000 miles, or nearly three times that of the moon from the earth, but the powerful at- traction of its primary compels it to perform its great revolution round that body in sixteen days, or but little more than half the time our moon completes its very much smaller jour- ney round the earth.
The nearest satellite, Mimas, only 117,000 miles from Saturn, flies round its orbit in the brief time of a trifle more than 22^ hours, while the farth- est one, little Phoebe, distance uncer- tain but about 6,000,000 miles, requires about one and a half years to com- plete its long journey. It is so small that it can be detected only in the most powerful telescopes, and it has a retrograde motion. It has been sur- mised that at some very remote period of its history it was a comet coursing from distant space down towards our sun, but its path chancing to be near the great planet Saturn, that powerful body captured the wandering comet and annexed it forever to its numerous satellite family.
LEO AND THE SICKLE
One of the fine constellations now advancing in the eastern sky is Leo, the zodiacal Lion. Its well-known group of stars forming the Sickle is one of the most striking objects in the heavens. Regulus, at the end of the handle, is a first magnitude star with a parallax that gives it a distance of
35 light years, consequently the rays which excited our optic nerve last evening, left that giant sun more than a third of a century ago, in the year 1882. Children born that year are now engaged in doing the world's work in business, professional, and other de- partments of life.
If you should draw a line from the North Star through the pointers of the Dipper, and continue it to Leo, it would nearly impinge upon Regulus, which is almost exactly on the eclip- tic. About 25 degrees east of Regulus is the bright second magnitude star Denebula, in the Lion's tail. The blade of the Sickle forms the shoulder of the Lion, and Regulus marks the heart, from which fact it is sometimes called "Cor Leonis"— the heart of the lion. The point from which the Leonid meteors radiate, producing brilliant meteoric showers three times during each century, lies within the curved blade of the Sickle. The next great Leonid showers will be due about the middle of November in the year 1934.
The second star from Regulus is the beautiful double, Gamma Leonis, sometimes called Algeiba. A tele- scope of moderate power reveals two stars with complementary colors. A more powerful telescope shows Regu- lus to have a small distant companion which is characterized by a deep blue color.
Prof. Edgar L. Larkin, the noted as- tronomer and scientist, will be at home to his many friends and astronomical students, Saturday and Sunday of each week, at the Mt. Lowe observatory.
LECTURE ANNOUNCEMENTS
OF THE ASTRONOMICAL
SOCIETY
Tuesday Evening, March 13 — The So- ciety will be addressed by Willett L. Hardin, Ph. D., consulting chemist, investigator of new processes. Sub- ject: "Radio-Activity; in the Lab- oratory and from a Cosmic Point of View." How is radium related to the permanent temperature of the earth and also of the sun?
Tuesday Evening, March 27 — Prof. H. LaV. Twining, of the Polytechnic High school, will give his views of "The Constitution of Matter." He will elucidate his theory of ether, electrons, ions, chemical elements, and their interaction. Illustrated by lantern views.
Tuesday Evening, April 10^ — Prof. D. S. Swan, of the Los Angeles High school, will talk on an astronomical topic to be announced later.
Tuesday Evening, April 24 — Prof. Ar- thur W. Nye, Department of Phys- ics, University of Southern Califor- nia, will address the Society. Sub- ject: "The Laws of Light," with beautiful lantern views showing the formation of wave fronts and their interference, reflection, refraction, etc.
MODERN SCIENCE CLASSICS
By EDGAR LUCIEN LARKIN Daily at noon excepting Sundays. In Science Chambers, Promenade 3, Brack Shops Palace, 521 W. 7th St., Los. Angeles, Cal. Lectures illustrated with lantern projections. Admission 25 cents.
THE ASTRONOMICAL, SOCIETY OF LOS ANGELES
MeetM at the Los Angreles High School, North Hill street, on the second and fourth Tuesday eveningrs of each month, except July and Augrust. An- nual Dues $1.00.
WILLIAM H. KNIGHT President
CHARLES C. KELSO... Vice President
MARS BAUMGARDT Treasurer
THOS. P. SMITH. . .Chrm. Exec. Comm. T. L. O'BRIEN Secretary
THE HEAVENS
Edited by WILLIAM H. KNIGHT
621 Witmer St.
Published by T. L. O'BRIEN
684 Kip St. 55191 and Bdwy. 8173
Annual Subscription, $1.00
Grand Easter Ceremonial
on Mount Lowe, April 8th, 1917
Easter will be celebrated at sunrise with music, addresses, and other appropriate exercises on a spur of Mount Lowe above Alpine Tavern at an altitude of 5,500 feet — more than a mile above the sea — on Easter morning.
Guests at the hotel and adjacent cottages will be summoned at 5 A. M. and will proceed in a body up the romantic winding road to a picturesque group of rocks above Inspiration Point, to witness the first streaks of dawn, and the sun bursting forth into day above the distant mountain tops. This pinnacle was dedicated as Easter Rock a year ago and will henceforth be devoted to annual Easter services.
This year a fine double quartette of trained voices will render selections suited to the occasion, and a grand chorus of jubilant singers will make the welkin ring as the sun rises in glory above the horizon and sheds his beams of living light over the far-stretching landscape and distant sea.
There will be nothing comparable with this magnificent occasion any- where else on the habitable globe. It will be an event ever to be held in the memory of all who may be present.
PART OF THE PROGRAM
5:10 — Grand March from Alpine Tav- 5:55 — Address, Dr. Merle Smith, Pas
ern to Easter Rock. tor First M. E. Church, Pasadena.
5:25 — "Salutation of the Dawn," Dou- 6:00 — Hymn, "All Hail the Power of
ble Quartette. Organ accompani- Jesus' Name." (By the congrega-
ment by Mrs. Hammond. tion.)
5:30 — Invocation, by Chaplain Orville 6:05 — Short Poem "On the Mountain-
J. Nave. side."
5:35 — Hymn, "The Morning Light Is 6:10 — Short Poem, "The Gates of
Breaking." (Will be sung by the Morning."
assembled throng.) 6:15 — "Hallelujah, Christ is Risen,"
5:40 — Brief passages from the Bible, Double Quartette.
Chaplain Nave. 6:20 — "The Soul Shall Rise Again,"
5:45— Poem, "God of the Open Air," Vivid Sketch.
from Henry Vandyke. (Reading by 6:25 — Hymn, "Joy to the World, the
Dr. J. A. Baber.) Lord is Come." (By the congre-
5:50 — "Palm Branches," Male Quar- gation.)
tette. 6:30 — Benediction, Chaplain Nave.
Fare, round trip, $2.00. Cars will leave P. E. Station on April 7th at 9 and 10 A. M., and at 1:30, 4, 9, and 12 P. M.
Grand Astronomical Excursion
to the Lowe Observatory, April 7th, 1917
Members of the Astronomical Society and their friends, and ail others interested, will join an astronomical excursion to the Lowe Observatory to view Saturn and its rings and satellites, and other objects of great interest, through the large 16-inch telescope presided over by Professor Edgar Lucien Larkin. To many this opportunity will be the event of a lifetime. Special rates for the excursion have been arranged for by Secretary T. L. O'Brien of the Astronomical Society. Address, 684 Kip street. Phones 55191 and Broadway 8173.
Both of these notable events can be enjoyed on one railroad fare.