The most interesting feature about Jupiter for the amateur astronomer
consists in observing four of its moons, which are visible with a
small telescope. They appear like mere dots of light, and their
transit of or occultation with the planet (that is, their
disappearance before or behind its disk) can be watched, and is a
never failing source of pleasure. A large telescope alone reveals
Jupiter's four other moons.
SATURN.
Saturn is farther removed from the earth than any of the planets in
the solar system, visible to the naked eye. It is distinguished from
the fixed stars by the steadiness of its light, which is dull and of a
yellow hue, though to some it appears to be of a greenish tinge. It
seems barely to move, so slow is its motion among the stars, for it
takes two and one half years to pass through a single constellation of
the Zodiac.
Saturn has eight moons. Titan, its largest one, can be seen with a 3"
glass. Its celebrated rings are telescopic objects but a small glass
reveals them.
URANUS.
The student will hardly mistake Uranus for a fixed star, as it is only
under the most favorable circumstances that it can be seen with the
naked eye.
At its nearest approach to the earth, it is as bright as a
sixth-magnitude star. Uranus is accompanied by four moons, and takes
seven years to pass through a constellation of the Zodiac.
NEPTUNE.
Neptune is the most distant of the planets in the solar system, and is
never visible to the naked eye.
The earth comes properly under a discussion of the planets, but a
description of it is hardly within the scope of this work.
Confusion in identifying the planets is really confined to Mars and
Saturn, for Venus and Jupiter are much brighter than any of the fixed
stars, and their position in the heavens identifies them, as we have
seen before.
The following table of first-magnitude stars in the Zodiacal
constellations confines the question of identifying the planets to a
comparison of the unknown star with the following-named stars:
Castor and Pollux in Gemini.
Spica " Virgo.
Regulus " Leo.
Aldebaran " Taurus.
Antares " Scorpius.
The first four stars named above are white in color, so that either
Mars or Saturn is readily distinguished from them.
As for Aldebaran and Antares, which are both red stars, not unlike
Mars and Saturn in color and magnitude, the fact that the latter do
not twinkle, and that they do not appear in the diagrams, should
satisfy the observer of their identity. Reference to an almanac, or a
few nights of observation, will in any case set at rest any doubt in
the matter.
[Illustration: THE PLANETARY ORBITS]
[Illustration: COMPARATIVE SIZE OF THE PLANETS.]
THE MILKY WAY.
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