HEAVENS IN 1940

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21559, 23 January 1940, Page 2

HEAVENS IN 1940

MANY CONJUNCTIONS ECLIPSES AND A TRANSIT The heavens in 1940 will produce a number of interesting phenomena, chief amongst them being some magnificent planetary spectacles. At the beginning of this week there was a close conjunction between Jupiter and Mars, and these two planets are at present very conspicuous in the western evening sky. On February 13 Mars will be in conjunction with Saturn, in April with Venus, and in June with Mercury. For a week or so in June. Mars, Venus and Mercury, will form a magnificent cluster low in the west. The most spectacular of the year’s many planetary conjunctions will be the close approach of Venus and Jupiter on February 21. On that day the two planets will be only one degree apart, and as they are the two brightest “stars” in the sky the sight should be one worth watching for. Less spectacular will be the conjunction of Saturn and Venus a fortnight later, on March 9. At the beginning of March the evening sky will reveal a wonderful cluster of planets, with Mercury low down on the western horizon; above will be Jupiter, then Venus, Saturn and Mars. If they were not so faint, Oranus and Neptune would also come into the picture. Astrologers will be Busy Later in the year Jupiter and Saturn will be in conjunction on three near dates, a phenomena which has not happened since 1683. In April Jupiter and Saturn will be lost in the evening twilight and will be a considerable distance apart. But when the two planets rise higher in the morning sky in June and July they will be approaching each other very rapidly, and during the second half of the year they will be never more than a few degrees apart. The motion of the earth will cause Jupiter to appear to pass Saturn and get ahead of it, only to move back and then to pass it again. The two planets will actually be in conjunction three times. These successive conjunctions will be repeated in about twenty years' time. They and the many other planetary conjunctions during the year should provide astrologers with data for many startling predictions. Two Eclipses There will be only two eclipses during 1940, both of the sun. An annular eclipse takes place on April 7, and this will be visible in the Pacific Ocean and in the southern part of the United States of America. It will be of no interest to New' Zealand. On October 1 the sun will be totally eclipsed along a line extending from the northern part of South America to the neighbourhood of Cape Town, where the duration of totality will be about four minutes. This, too, will not interest New Zealand. Celebrating Centennial But on November 12 New Zealand will have a rare celestial phenomenon to itself. This will be the transit of Mercury across the sun’s disc on that date, when the planet will be seen as a black dot crossing the sun. That this transit of Mercury should occur in New Zealand's Centennial year is a happy coincidence, for it was in 1769 that Captain Cook, while in the process of “discovering” New Zealand kept his eye open for a sheltered bay in which to observe the transit of Mercury, which took place that year. He found this away north in the Coromandel Peninsula, duly observed the transit (which enabled him to fix New Zealand's position on the map accurately), and named the bay Mercury Bay, a name which it still bears.