ASTRONOMY FOR AMATEURS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2803, 4 December 1907, Page 88

ASTRONOMY FOR AMATEURS.

THE SIGN OF CAPRICORNUB. By H. M. Levinge, B.A. To say the Earth will be doing the Goat in Deoember might bring a smile on some faces; but so it happens that on December 23, at 11.22 a.m., New Zealand mean time, i the Sun enters Capricornus, and he takes ' about 30 days to pass through one sign. ' Each of the 12 eigns of the Zodiac contains 30deg, and they were named some 4000 years ago, and known as " the tabernacles of the Sun " (Pealm 19). The word means " a shifting camp." There are four important points on the "roof of the tropics" called "the Zodiac," which can aptly be described by a clook dial as the chiming times. Aries where the Sun crosses the celestial equator, March fl. This is called the vernal equinox, and She Jew* at the Exodus were ordered to toep the day of the Full Moon after the Stm crossed the equator, as we do our 14th day of January. — (See Exodus, chapter xii.) It is pretty certain from this that December 21 was the beginning of the Egyptian year, and unless a change were made the feasts and fasts of this newly-commissioned church militant would clash with those of idol worshippers they were «ent to destroy. The Jews made the first point of Aries the time for beginning the year. We commence it like the ancient Baal worshippers about three months before, or when the Sun has passed Bdeg 87min of Capricornus. So the world's clock strikes the hour at December 31; the Jews' clook varies. Thus in 1906 March 31 was New Year's Day; 1907, March 15; 1908, April 3; 1909, March 27; 1910, March 11; 1911, March 31; 1912, March 22; 1913, March 17; 1914, March 27; 1915, March 19. Adding 1Q days to each of above dates will give Easter Sunday. So we see the chiming Suarters are: Capricomue, Decemberftnuary; Aries, March-April; Cancer, June-July ; Libra, September-October. These little events mean winter, spring, summer, and autumn to the Earth. THE MAKERS OF ASTRONOMY. The makers of astronomy were the Chaldeans, Egyptians, the Arabians, etc. — people who lived between lat. 30 and 40 N. •nd long. 40 and 50 E..— and, as usual, they did everything to suit themselves. A Southern Hemisphere was not even then suspected; thus everything turns out wrong for us: we have snow in summer and heat in winter. Harvest occurs when it should be spring. Aquarius and Pisces mean our driest seasons, when a red herring even would not be moist. Goats would not stand on their hind legs to reach up to the foliage of trees when grass was at its finest. Cancer, followed by Leo, means burning heat, because the sand was so hot it burned like the terrible disease cancer, now getting so common. Leo, followed by Virgo, is supposed to have originated the Sphinx, which would prove the Zodiac signs were named before the Pyramids were built. What, then, is so peculiar about June and Deeem- i ber! I These are the periods the Earth recedes from and approaches the Sun, as indicated by the Sun s apparent diameter : — Sun's diameter, January 1, 32min 35.165 ec; Sun's diameter, July 5, 32min 30.685e0. It eeems 32min 2sec is the average size of the Sun, and it varies only sseo; but then the Earth's diameter (8000 miles) looks only osec at the Sun. If the Sun's diameter ie 886,000 miles, and it appears to us an angle of 32min 2sec, sseo must mean we are 239,458 miles nearer the Sun in December than in June. This 239,458 miles is the average distance the Moon is away from us. On March 24 and October 11 the Sun is at a mean distance. But we want some experiments. Let us get a basin on the usual basin stand fitting into the circle /so fe to be easily incllined at any angle. We make the basin contain the greatest quantity of water. and so the water touches the rim all around, and the rim is to be a 6ort of trolley line' for the Earth represented by an orange to travel around the sun, supposed to be an island in the centre of the basin. We can with a knife cut a piece out of the orange at one of the black specks, co as to allow its centre to ' ride on the basin edge. Well, the orange might go round and round, making earn circle to be a year, and no seasons or change in day and night would occur. An oval basin would be needed, and the Sun placed nearer one long axis than the other to make the Sun appear larger at one solstice than at the other. To produce the seasons we might depress one aide of the basin 23m in 30sec below the level and a quantity of water would overflow at the depressed side. The rim would be converted into a trolley line going up above the Sun for one half and as much below the Sun for the other half, and the Sun would shine on alternate poles, and each six months, passing between extremes, the Sun would be perpendicular to the equator and horizontal to both poles at the same time. But someone will ask how can we tell the Sun occupies any position among the stare when star; disappear more than an hour before sunrise, and stars cannot be seen under an hour or more after sunset? This is where an instrument is needed. Your watch is a faithful guide a 6 to what the Sun is doing day or night. All the sky you will ever see (while you remain in the same place) passes you each 24 hours, and 12 hours after noon the line of right ascension will be crossing opposite to the Sun. Here ie where the Sun will appear six months later. But be careful. The Sun will be exactly as much on the opposite side of the celestial Equator after six months — say, on March <1. You note the point the Sun crosses to north of you on September 21 ; it will cross same place minus precession of equinox (SOmin 25sec). If on December 21. you point at the noon sun on June 21, it will cross 23deg 27-4.98 multiplied by 2 below, and co on. The 6ign of Caprioornus was dignified by the ancients into about the most important although B.C. the winter solstice occurred Borne 30deg to the west — viz., Sagittarius. Precession, only 50.25min yearly, in ages amounts to something, and in over a period of 25,000 years it will make mid ceason6 occur over spaces of SOdeg of the Earth's orbit all around. The Empress of China, the Sultan of Morocco, the Khedive of Egypt, and the Ameer of Afghanistan' all maintain official astrologer^.