Shanghai is rather an annoying place in which to try to carry out astronomical -observations. This, of course, is because of the weather. Our Shanghai sky is so liable to be overcast, even when it is not actually raining, as it often is. that one can never count on seeing the heavenly bodies when one so desires.
A very useful guide to the astronomical phenomena that will take place each month is published on or about its first dav in the "North China Daily News," telling would-be star-gazers at to look for and when to look for it. It is issued by the astronomical department of Siccawei Observatory, but, unfortunately, the worthy Jesuit Fathers in charge of the meteorological department of that splendid institution, although able to predict with a considerable degree of accuracy what to expect in the way of weather, cannot control that elusive phenomenon with all its vagaries as many people seem to think they should.
Thus it came about that, in spite of the fact that I had my telescope all ready for the event, and was looking forward toit with keen anticipation, I was not able to see the predicted conjunction of Venus, that magnificent planet which is often known as the Evening Star, and the thin bow of the New Moon, which took place at about 5 o'clock (summer time) in the late afternoon of August 25, because of heavy clouds obscuring the western sky. It was most annoying and disappointing to miss what must have been a beautiful sight away off there behind the lowering clouds, for it will bə a long time before it will happen again. This month the conjunction of Venus and the Moon will take place on the 24th at about 9 o'clock in the morning, which means that we shall not be able to see it. wt ups However, in spite of our execrable weather, there are occasions when one can have a really wonderful time with one's telescope, turning it on this or that luminary, and always learning Something new. Of course, what one thus discovers for oneself is not really new, and, if One possesses and has read the right book or books on astronomy, one would already know all about it. But how many amateur astronomers are so equipped? For that matter, it may be asked, how many professional astronomers could tell one just what to look for in focusing one's telescope upon any given star? One of the most staggering facts that I have come across in my reading is contained in Sir Arthur Eddington's recent book. "The Expanding Universe," and is to the effect that 100,000,000,000 stars make one galaxy, such as the one in which our solar system and terrestrial sphere lie, cal-the Milky Way, and 100,000,000,000 galaxies make one universe. A galaxy is a system of stars like ours lying away off in space, and it is estimated that there are 100,000,000,000 of them. That means that, as far as our astronomical knowledge at present goes, there are something like 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in existence. To put it into words rather than numerals, there are believed to be ten thousand trillion stars in the universe, so it will be understood what I mean when I question @he ability of even the professional astronomer to sav off hand just what one may expect to see when one turns one's telescope on a given star in the sky.
On the night of the recent partial eclipse of the Moon, September 5 and 6, which, by the way, was not mentioned, either before or after the event, by any of our local newspapers, except that it was listed in Siccawei's September forecast in the "North China Daily News" of September 1, and apparently was also missed by the local Chinese, since they failed to kick up their usual shindy on such occasions, not only did I have a good time looking at the Moon through my telescope and watching the succeeding phases of the eclipse, but I discovered a big red planet shining brightly as it came up from behind some tall poplar trees to the east. I took it to be Mars, although my telescope is not sufficiently powerful to show me the famous "canals," which are not canals, polar ice-caps, expanding seas and other features on this planet's surface. I could, however, detect a certain darkening of the middle of the disc, which is where the great Martian seas are supposed to lie. 4 2 A little later another rather bright object came up from behind the same trees, and I turned my telescope upon it, being thrilled to find that it was the planet Saturn, and not a star as I had thought. The well known rings, which, according to the latest theory are made up of countless closely-packed meteors whirling round the equator of this big planet in a flat plane, were clearly visible. Next, an extremely bright body, far out-shining anything else in the sky except the Moon itself, came up from behind a roof-top a few degrees to the north of the point where Saturn rose, and this proved to be the planet Jupiter, with three of its nine moons, or satellites, as astronomers seem to pre-for to call them, plainly visible, one very close and the other two at some distance. Incidentally, I wonder how many of my readers know thet Saturn also has a number of moons, nine or ten. But I did not see any of them, although one is supposed to be of about the same order of size as the four big moons of Jupiter, known as Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Saturn's biggest moon is known as Titan.
I was having such a good time observing these heavenly bodies between periods of looking at the Moon and tha shadow that was slowly creeping round its lower edge. that I forgot time and became oblivious of the mosquitoes that were making mincemeat of my bare legs, and began turning my telescope upon the stars that were visible. Brightest of these was Vega, which by this time was fairly low over the western horizon, and I had a good look at this splendid spectacle. It was a brilliant mauve-blue in colour, like the flame of potassium. No one who has not seen such a star through a fairly strong telescope can have any idea of its beauty. Incidentally, it is only through the telescope that one really sees the colours of the stars—red, orange, yellow, blue, mauve or white, as the case may be. Finished with Vega, I turned my telescope upon Altair, in the constellation of Aquila. another first magnitude star, and found it to be bluish-white in colour. Again, I was impressed by its magnificence. Low over the southern horizon. below the Tropic of Capricorn, was Formalhaut, yet another star of the first magnitude. It appeared to be yellow.
Antares, the mighty red star whose diameter has been computed to be some 400,000,000 miles, and which is the middle star in the body of the Scorpion, was already too low on the southwestern horizon to be seen, being obscured by mists, so I swung to the north and had a look at Polaris, the Pole Star, round which all the stars in the sky seem to revolve, but do not. It was white. From it I turned to star after star in the constellations in the northern quadrant, including those of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. or the Plough, or, if you are an American, the Dipper, and became thoroughly intrigued when I found that Mizar, the second star from the tip of the Bear's tail, or the Dipper's handle, is a "binary," or double star. What looks like an ordinary single star to the naked eye, through the telescope resolves itself into two stars, a big blue one and close to it a smaller white one.
Apparently double stars are fairly common, although the observer without a telescope would never know it. Some of them have a dark dead PETI the dark one sometimes eclipsing the bright companion, the two revolving about each other one. Recently the third known group of three Stars thas revolving about one another has been Mieported. It is the star known as Zta in the constellation of Aquarius. The third star in this trio has not yet been seen, its presence being Known only by the irregular motions of the other two.
While all the larger stars have names of their own, most of the others are only known by Greek letters in the constellation to which they belong, or only by numbers, like criminals in a big gaol But they are not criminals. Far from it. To me they are the loveliest things in all Nature, and often I wish that I could go out into space and live amongst them—which, of course, is most unscientific of me. But that is why I delight in the constellations and love Just to repeat the names of the great stars—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.