* * * * * ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. BY BERLIN H. WRIGHT. PENN YAN, N. Y., Saturday, December 14, 1878. The following calculations are adapted to the latitude of New York city, and are expressed in true or clock time, being for the date given in the caption when not otherwise stated: PLANETS. H.M. Mars rises 4 57 mo. Jupiter sets 7 54 eve. Saturn in meridian 6 16 eve. Uranus rises 10 11 eve. Neptune in meridian 8 48 eve. FIRST MAGNITUDE STARS, ETC. H.M. Alpheratz in meridian 6 28 mo. Mira (var.) in meridian 8 39 eve. Algol (var.) in meridian 9 26 eve. 7 stars (Pleiades) in merid. 10 06 eve. Aldebaran in meridian 10 54 eve. Capella in meridian 11 33 eve. Rigel in meridian 11 34 eve. Betelgeuse in meridian 0 18 mo. Sirius rises 8 05 eve. Procyon rises 7 40 eve. Regulus rises 9 43 eve. Spica rises 2 24 mo. Arcturus rises 1 27 mo. Antares rises 6 30 mo. Vega sets 9 52 eve. Altair sets 8 40 eve. Deneb sets 1 02 mo. Fomalhaut sets 9 16 eve. MOON'S PLACE IN THE CONSTELLATIONS AT 7 P.M. Saturday, Cancer 26 deg. Sunday, Leo 9 deg. Monday, Leo 23 deg. Tuesday, Virgo 7 deg. Wednesday, Virgo 22 deg. Thursday, Libra 6 deg. Friday, Libra 21 deg. REMARKS. The sun will attain his greatest southern declination and enter the constellation _Sagittarius_ December 21, 5h. 45m. evening, at which time winter begins. Mars will be 5 deg. north of the moon December 21, in the morning. Saturn will be 90 deg. east of the sun December 18, passing the meridian at 6 o'clock in the evening. He is now advancing among the stars, and will soon be again upon the equinoctial colure. Uranus will be nearly 4 deg. north of the moon December 15. * * * * * SYMPATHETIC INKS. Under the name of sympathetic inks are designated certain liquids which, being used for writing, leave no visible traces on the paper, but which, through the agency of heat, or by the action of chemicals, are made to appear in various colors. The use of such means for secret correspondence is very ancient. Ovid, Pliny, and other Roman writers speak of an ink of this kind, which, however, was nothing more than fresh milk. It merely sufficed to dust powdered charcoal over the surface of the paper upon which characters had been traced with the colorless fluid, when the black powder adhered only to those places where the fatty matter of the milk had spread. Such a process, however, was merely mechanical, and the results very crude.