GLORY OF THE STARS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19834, 3 January 1928, Page 6

GLORY OF THE STARS.

TEE HEAVEHS IN JANUARY. |* INTERESTING PHENOMENA, § THE NEW SOUTHERN CQMET. r: || =.. BY CBOI AtTSTBAiIR. The Sun is in the constellation !s»git- J i tsurios st the beginning of the nronth.ijS passing into Capricornurs on January 20. |1 On the fourth the Earth will bs at i its jnini«num distance from tiio Sun. ;f|fj Surwpota havs not been so large of so j 1 frequent during Deiseiaber as they u'ere|3 La preceding nioathis. Lite Moon will be: in conjunction with"'| Saturn oai the afternoon of the 19th,, .with . 1 Venus on the morning of the 20th, wstU Mans on the morning of the 21st, with -I Mamiry on the morning of the 24tfc, and si with Jupiter on the afternoon of the 27th. BfiSrcmy is a morning star, until the 9th, ■when it will be in superior con- > junction with tho Baa and will enter |s the evening sky. It should be visible in 3 the evening sky at the end oS the month. : ! Mercury's motion can: as it from Sagittarius laito Capncoraus on the 15th. Venus is stiil a brilliant object in the r morning sky. During January it will pass from; Libra, through. Scorpio and Opuitichus into Sagittarius. On the 17th • Venus wiill be in conjunction with Saturn in the morning sky, when only £deg., or the Moon's apparent diameter, will separate the two planets. Mars is now a morning :star, its path I lying in Ophiuchus unti'l the 17th, when 'it passes into Sugittarius.. At its conjunction with the Moon on the 21st it will he within fdeg. of that body, ;und it wifi KtOl be close to the Moon when it rises just before sunrise oa the 21st. Jupiter* is now drawing near the sun's place, but it still remains a brilliant object in the evening sky. Its interesting satellite phenomena may be observed nn the following nights: January 2. 4, '5-9, 13, 14, 16, 20, 22, 23, 27, 30, 31. At 8.30 a.m. on the 24th Jupiter will b« in oonjunction with Uranus, which will then be only jdeg. south of Jupiter. Saturn is in the morning sky and lies in the constellation Ophiuchus. During its aiming period of visibility Its ring Systran will be widely opened to our gaze, and the planet should piove an interesting objcirt for some months* Ob January 8, Neptune will pass within threw minutes of arc of the bright, star Regains in Leo. This should prore & favtjurablti opportunity for identifying this obscure planet, as it generally lies in iregions of faint stars and is then difficult to distinguish froc; the neighbouring stan;. The Constellations. Ilie constellations, as given bebfcr, may he seen as indicated at 11 p J tn. of the Istj, 10 p.m. of the 15th and 8 p.m. of the 31st of the month. Looking north Persieus is nearest the horizon and to the wast of the meridian, while toward the east is Auriga and the brilliant CapeSla. Taurus Is over these, and the briUianfe Gemini is now well risen in *he northeast. Over Gemini, Or'on is now a prominent object, easily ciistieguisheu by the tihree equidistant irigfet stars of his "belt." Over Orion is Lepns, and toward tbo west and tf> the zenith is Eridanus, its bright Aebernar being now near itho zenith. Hydra extends across thti enitem horizon from north to ?outh. Can is Major, with its brilliant Sinus, brightest of aii the starry hosfr, ;oow iies about midway between the zenith and tho eastern horizon, while tba large group of Argo is to ' the south, its brilliant. CanV>pus being very prominent The Oros& has row eorao well out. from under the pole, followed by the : bright pointers in .Centaurus. The small groups of Triangtihun Austral is and Ara are due south, with Pavo and Toucan to the west,. Capricwrnus and Aquarius are now nearing the western horizon, dad Pegfisus ard Andromeda are low in the north-west, with Aries and Pisces above theni. Cetas is over these sgaia. An Interesting Visitor. 1 During December great interest was caused by the unexpected appearance in southern iskiea oi: one of the brightest comets visible in this csnlury. This comet possessed a peculiar interest to New Zealanders, .its it was independently discovered by at least 12 New Zealiimlers, only a small pro] ortion of wt«6s* were interested in astronomy. Bis disappointing to thi»k, however, that lor iiome time before its discoveiy, the comet taust hava been a pirominenlf naked-eye obj«sc. and it hi surprising that it eluded dinoovery for so long. When discovered it was near the Southern Cross, high in southern declination, and was moving rapidly toward tho Sun.. New Zealand observers were, however, able to study the comet for a week after its discovery was made, arid it was found thai; it gained appreciably in brightness during thai time. The nucleus expelled a fan like tail sunward, and the main tail, which enveloped the nucleus in its parabolic curve, stretched away from the sun for an apparent length of two degrees;. To-the naked eve a distiaict reddish tinge was noticeable, and this was confirmed by telescopic observations. Dr. C. E. Adams, the Dominion as tronomer, and Mr. P. W. Glover, of Canterbury College, calculated an orbit for the comet, which indicated that it passed nearest the Sun on December 4. when it:» distance fro nr. the Sun was abort 60,000,000 Tnilesi At that time it vas about 40(00,000 miles from the Earth. Tho indications were that tho comet would travel rapidly north, becoming visible in the Northern Hemispbera in a short time. Worthera Qbserv&ticsut. Astronomers in the Northern Hemisphere maiiie & search for the comet and on December 16 it vras observed at Hanover Observatory, in Germany, when its bright nesf was of the first magnitude, with a short tail, which agreed well with observations made locslly earlier in the month. On the same dav the ccmet wmis also observed at Flagstaff Observatory, Arizona. 4 _ ISecent cablegrams tnat the current opinion in the Northern Hemisphere is that the comet has reached its most northern pcint, and is now travelling southward again. If it should move sufficiently far south to become visible again in these skies, it will not be the splendid object it was at the time of its discovery. . Ihtemsfc in the comet rovived when the German ustronojoaers matte the suggestion th?it the comet was a return of Di Vico's comet;, a very brilliant comet discovered at Rome on August 22, 1844. It was expected to return to perihelion in 1850 and 1855, but it was never found. The disappearance of ; such a large brilliant- comet was very remarkable, and astronomers were forced to believe that planetary attraction had so altered its orbit that it wasi lost to the solar system. In 1894 a. small i»met was discovered, the elements of whose orbit closely resembled the elements oi Di Vico's comet, and some astronomers were convinced that the two comets were identical. 5Vs tho comet of 189* was a faint one, if it really were a ireturn of Di Vico's. ,it must be subject to marked changes in brilliancy. Expected returns cif this comet in 1900 and 1907 were not observed; nor has it since teen seen, but it is noteworthv that, a slight lengthening in this comet's penod (originally 6.4 years) would make it visible at the tame the new comet was ditraivered. ][t is probably upon this fact thr.t the German astronomers make the suggestion of its identity. However, the calculated orbit of the new comet differs wdely from those of Di Vico's comet, and the comet of 1P94, so that the possibility of tbe present comet being a return of Dt Vico S is extremely remote. Di Vico's comet had an inclination to the Earth's orbit of only 3 degrees, and a perihelion distance of 1.186 times the Earths distance •from the Sun, while the present comet has an inclination of 86 ana perihelion distance of 0.6, half that ®* Di yico's coißset.