SIGNS IN THE MOON.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1991, 22 September 1869, Page 2

SIGNS IN THE MOON.

Sir, —Your correspondent, “ Qui ive, ” exhibits symptoms, in common with many in town, of having partaken of the panic which has in these colonies originated with Saxby, and, notwithstanding that you and your contemporary the Times have already satisfactorily'shewn that these fears are groundless, some appear still to doubt. Such a large population is located in the low part of the

city, but a very,few feet elevated above the level of high water mark, who must all feel a vital interest in having something like a certainty in knowing whether they are to go out to sea—“house and haddin”—the week after next or not, it is right that the utmost publicity should he giveu with dispatch to an intelligible explanation of the harmless planetary agency which is coming into operation, so as to shew that that agency next month will not be sensibly different from what it is at the present moment, and that there is no solid reason for any one being alarmed either about wind or water.

Saxby, in the first place, must not in this instance be regarded in the light of a weather proi diet, judging of coming events by discoveries of his own in the heavens. On the con rary, his prediction i deduced from the shadows cast by that noble institution, the Royal Observatory of Greenwich. lie Nautical A manac, issued by command of the Lords of the Admiralty, gives the exact angular bearings, thus indicating the exact positions of all the planetary bodies as they will be seen by an observer on this earth for every hour, and tables for the ready calculation of them for every minute of time, for for every day of the year, and for years, too, in advance. To the astronomers editing this invaluable triumph of science, it is equally easy to give the calculations for any year whatever; and as the work is in the hands of the maritime and scientific world at large, all who understand it can see and judge f-r themselves, when and how often our attached and close companion, “the moon,” is likely to bo disagreeably near us. Although the planets are ever varying their

position, and passing and re-passing one another in their several orbits, it can be easily proved, even to the unscientific inquirer that their courses and motions through space, seemingly irregular and conjectural, are in strict conformity with fixed laws, and that we have ascertained the operation of these laws and can depend upon them. It must be clear, that if we know the rate at which any two pinets set out from the same or from a particular point visible to our eye, say a star, which is a fixed, reliable startingpoint, and if we also know the orbits or the courses they have to traverse, and the angular bearing of the plane of the one orbit to the other, we possess all the essential data from which we may calculate at what period of time these two planets will return to the exact spot from which they departed. This g neral illustration is sufficiently near to make the principle understood. Who has not been struck with the unvarying truthfulness of the predictions which are given forth of the eclipses of both sun and moon ? These prefictions are made known years beforehand, and not only is it a fact that they do take place at the exact instant of time foretold, but, if annular, or partial, drawings may be obtained showing the appearance which the obscuration wdll assume as it traverses the face of the luminary, and as it will be seen from any point of the earth’s surface where the eclipse will be visible. All this plaMy shows that we have so the ro ighly ascertained the movements of the planetary orbs that we can predict the r position to any date by a continued series of deductions backward or additions forward, to a ,y period of time. Res. mg then upon such reliable information, I now beg to answer your correspondent’s question, and to say, that after 229 revolutions in the sky, the moon is once more in precisely the same position in relation to the sun and the earth as at first. In other words, on the 25th September, 1851, their relative places were precisely the same as they will occupy on the sth October, 1860. Upon that occasion there was no devastation ; and, relying upon the stability of Nature’s laws, there will be none upon this. Besides, supposing that a storm should take place, Saxby will have mistaken the cause thereof, and will not be entitled to any credit for the prediction, if the disturbance in the elements should be prior to the sth or later than mid-day of the 7th. The cause must precede the effect, and local causes not operating to retard or modera.e the disturbing forces, if Baxby is correct, the storm ought to exhibit strong symptoms of its existence within two days after the cause has set in.—l am, &c., AV. 0.