7. Are there any other eclipses? Other planets with moons have eclipses in the same way. 8. Tell me another name for “moons.” Satellites. 9. What is a Conjunction of Planets? When two planets happen to be seen near together in the sky we call that a Conjunction. 10. Are they really near together? No nearer than usual. They only happen to lie in almost the same line of sight. 11. What is a Transit of a Planet? Very much like an eclipse. One of the planets, nearer to the Sun than our Earth, gets exactly between the Sun and Earth. 12. Is the Sun’s face hidden? No; because the planet is too far away. We only see a small body crossing his face. 13. At what time is an Eclipse of the Sun? Never at any other time than New Moon. 14. When do we have an Eclipse of the Moon? Never at any other time than Full Moon. 15. What is a Total Eclipse of Sun or Moon? When the whole face of the Sun or Moon is hidden. 16. What is a Partial Eclipse? When only part of the face of Sun or Moon is hidden. 17. What is an Annular Eclipse of the Sun? When a bright rim of the Sun is seen all round the dark body of the Moon. CHAPTER XIII. MERCURY AND VENUS. Now let us take a flight through the Sun’s great kingdom, paying a visit to one bright world after another on our way. We will start from near the Sun himself, stopping first to look at the two innermost of the Four Lesser Planets. We might name them The Sun’s Body-Guard. MERCURY has a pathway round the Sun much more oval in its shape than our Earth’s pathway. And the Sun is a good deal to one side of the exact middle of that oval. So Mercury, at one time of his year, is many millions of miles closer to the Sun than at another time. You must remember that a Planet’s Year means just the length of time that the Planet takes to go once round the Sun. Our Earth’s yearly journey takes 365 days; but other worlds have years either longer or shorter. No two are exactly alike. The length of Mercury’s year is about 88 of our days, or three months of Earth-time. So four years of Mercury go to one of our years. If a little boy on Mercury had lived just as long as ten of our years, he would be forty years old! When closest to the Sun, Mercury cannot easily be seen by us, he is so lost in the Sun’s radiance. And although perhaps the brightest of the worlds, because so much the nearest, he often seems dim to us. At his farthest off point from the Sun we have our best view of him, because he then stays longer above the horizon after the sunlight sinks away. We never see Mercury high up in the sky, for when Mercury is high the Sun is up also; and when the Sun can be seen Mercury cannot be seen without a telescope.