THE HEAVENS IN MAY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 2 May 1925, Page 3

THE HEAVENS IN MAY

(By the Hon. Director, Wanganui Observatory.)

THE SUN is in the constellation Aries, till the -13tih, when he enters Taurus. llis northern declination increases throughout the month from 15 to 22 degrees nearly, while his altitude at- true noon decreases by {he same amount during this period.' Several interesting groups of sun-spots have been observed during April, indicating an increase in this form of solar activity. THE MOON, moving night by night, in 'her easterley course amongst the stars, passes in turn the planets, and some of the brighter stars, and serves as a convenient pointer to them. She will be nearest Saturn on the evening of the Bth and 9th, Jupiter on the nightof the 13th and 14th, fairly close. Mercury on the night of the 20th ; Venus on the 23rd ; Mars on the nights of the 25th and 26th.

MERCURY is a- morning .star, passing across the sky in daylight- in front of the sun during the month. He will be stationary amongst- the stars on the Ist ; at greatest elongation towards the west of the sun's place on the 16th; and in lunar conjunction on the 20th. Venus is an evening star during the month, but. setting too near the sun’s place to be: seen for some. time, until she draws avvav from his surrounding glare. when she- will appear nearly round in a. telescope coming towards ns from the far side of the Sun. She will be in lunar conjunction on the 23rd.

MARS is an evening star during the month, but now approaching the sun’s place through northern declination, therefore close to that horizon at sunset. He will he in conjunction with ilm moon on the morning of the 26th. JUPITER in an evening star rising in the constellation Sagittarius, under the Scorpion rising about, 10 p.m. at the beginning and Shortly after 8 p.m. at the end of the month. His great brilliancy on rising in the south-eastern sky, makes it impossible to mistake him fo-r anything else. His motion amongst the stars which has been direct will cease on the night of the 11th, when he will become stationary, after which, owing to the motion of Earth he will appear to retrograde. He will be in conjunction with the moon oil the morning of the 13th. SATURN is an evening star visible in the eastern sky in the early evening west of til-ie bright star Alpha of .Libra, and visible throughout the night. He is now in very good phase for telescopic observation, his ring system being now well inclined to our line of vision; its various details well shown by any good astronomical telescope, having moderate powers. He comes to opposition on the night of the 2nd. at which time he will be due north: at midnight. He is in lunar conjunction on the Bth, and may be seen efose to our satellite on this and on the evening of the 9th. PLACES OF THE CONSTELLATIONS

The constellations as given below may be seen in their relative' position at 9 p.m. of the Ist; 8 p.rn. of the 15th; and 7 p.m. of the 3t!th of ■ the, month. Looking north we note. Leo. is well to the west, with its brilliant star B.egulus, in the end of the handle of the Sickle. Bootes is well towards the north-east, its brilliant A returns being at. about the same elevation as Begulus, while higher and between these two is Virgo and its brilliant Spirit, due north, and over there is Hydra and the small constellations of Corvus and , Crater. Over the east is Ophiachus, also Serpent, while to the south and above these are the Scorpion and Libra, with Sagittarius lower and to the south-east. Looking south, we see Achernar, the brightest but last in the River Eridanus, a little to the west of the meridian. with Toucan towards the easi of south, and Hvdrus over Achernar. The smaller Magellan cloud is now nearly due south at its lowest, with the larger cloud to the west and higher in the southern sky. The Southern Cross is now approaching its highest point over the South Pole, followed by the rest of the stars of the Centaur, and the bright pointers Alpha- and Beta Centauri. Argo is now to the west and well down towards the horizon late in the night. Canopus shares with the 'brilliant Sirius in Canis .Major, the honours of the western skies.

COME'lS.—The two telescopic cornels reported from Copenhagen on the 23rd and 24th of March respectively, have been observed on various dates since the day following their announcement. The one of Bth magnitude, east of Gamma Hydrae is still an easy object in a four inch or larger telescope, but that of the 11th magnitude never an easy one is now verv faint.

ISLAND UNIVERSES is a name that has been bestowed upon the spual nebulae, viewing them as objects quite beyond the. boundaries of our' system of stars, ot which the encircling confines are seen in the great enveloping clouds of the Milky Way. But there are two other objects which merit the distinction apparently and those arc the so-called Clouds of Magellan, easily seen on any clear night when the nmon is absent from the sky. They are seen to move around the south polar point of the heavens much as t ho Cross does; being in the circle of perpetual apparition as it is called, which means it never sets in our latitude. To the naked eye they have tiie appearance of pieces' of the Milky Wav that might have become detached and drifted away from the rest, but. in a good telescope they arc found to be made up of all varieties of bodies found in our stellar system. The hist close examination of these most interesting masses was made by Sir John Herscbel with a, telescope of eighteen inches diameter, and twenty foot” focal length, at the Cape of Good Hope. He determined the positions of nearly a thousand objects in tlm larger cloud, and about two hundred and forty in ilm smaller. Photography increases these a

hundredfold and reveals these masses as veritable storehouses of interesting objects. In the Larger Cloud we have a most wonderful object known popularly as the Looped Nebula. If is a remarkable sight in a great- telescope being made up of a mass of intertwined luminous wreaths of light encircling gren' gulfs of blackness at an almost infinite distance out in that limitless ocean of space. As we sweep over these clouds with a great telescope great patches of luminous nebulae, clusters and streams of stars, .stars of all degrees of luminosity and arranged in every conceivable form pass through (lie field of the instrument. A richness found nowhere else excepting in a few of the richer regions of the Galaxy. That- there is a distinct individuality about them may he gathered by the fact stated bv Ilerschel that "the access to the smaller cloud’’ on all sides is through a desert. Close to this smaller cloud is the line ; cluster known as 47 Toucani. _ 'This is the finest star-cluster visible in our telescope made up, as it is, of some two or three thousand stars very close-; ly grouped at the centre; its distance ! is put down at twenty-two thousand j light years. ;