ROUGH ASTRONOMICAL NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 4216, 31 August 1876, Page 4

ROUGH ASTRONOMICAL NOTES.

. BrarßHßnt, 1876. fa» tan enters the southern hemisphere on 23rd, 4§4fei.#»ft. His meridian altitude, times of merino passage, rising, and letting, for Duhedin, in W&* «a«m ttme ace as follows: Merid., OnMerid Bise«. Sets. • All hj, to. a. hj. m. hj. m. j| »•;»*' •"7 « 687 587 -■■■■% •■'•■»• 1* • 444 824 546 2t- 41 M 0a 17 610 5St » '# 88 'll WM S6B 6 3 PsASSS 09 9HB MOOT. JT«11 Moon, 4d. Bh. 48m. a.m. Jjast Quarter, lid. Bh.*lm. p.m. Saw Moon, 18d. Oh. 24m. a.m. Vint 26d. llh. BSm. p.m •\'- : ■'■■■' I«kP«rigee,lM.4h.a.m. : In Apogee, 27d. lh. a;m.. Greatest If. Deo., 12d. sh. a.m. Greatest & Dee., 25d. 7h. p.m. SeTettry Is at his greatest distance from the Sun: ap Bth at 10 p.m., and at his greatest elongation B. aMeg. ©ttiSth atiO a.m. This is the best month 1b Hie rear for observing Mercury after sunset, bc«Bture he is higher above the horison than at any «%her season. , From the 15th to the end of the! Month he will he-Well situated.

Ymttslis at her gretfteiit*elongatf on W. 4Sdeg. > on KttL at» a.m. She is still visible to the na\ea eye- &. the day-time, bat is getting rather difficult to, 4*toh* She maybe found daring the merith by. •Mrehing with ah opera glows that part of the sky ■fcotit half a right angle west of the Bun and in the ■m of the ecliptic Jupibtr and Saturn are both in good positions. Svpiier is in Libra, and Saturn in Aquarius. The •allowing eclipses of Jupiter's nnt satellite are visible jn New Zealand.*-?

C& time of reappearance, E. side. Jupiter sets. d. hj. m. b. "" hj. m. . 6 10 20 80 p.m, - 12 0 p.m. '■' "U 49 55 „-- 11 St „ . ;,» -i-z6-'- 41 ,37„ U :9 „ The Moon and Saturn will be very near each Other on the evening of 30th, at 10 p.m. Wesxe approaching a period of the lunar cycle, in which occultations of conspicuous stars by the Moon will be of' frequent occurrence in this latitude. Antares will be occulted monthly for about two years, and several of these will be visible at Bvnedin. The first which is visible occurs on 3rd April, 1877. The times of disappearance and reappearance will be given monthly, as they are about ,'. to take place. This is the best time to view the fine star cluster fn Pegasus, E.A., 21h. 24m., N., Dec. lldeg. ißimin. .It will be on the meridian on 3rd, at lOh. -Om. p_.ni.

ran sxtihctioh or lioht in teaveksing space. - In the Bttteenth century Bruno asserted that the attmber of stars-is infinite, and several-astronomers. Strove among the number, have supported this Opinion, while Herschell and others opposed it. fonnd that the number of stars brought *"i»ttf view by large telescopes was not anything lite proportional to their power, and hence concluded ihftt light is, in some way or other, extinguished in > JtoMntfte us from great distances. In this way-, he v, «/|eottntedfor the foot that the heavens do not tire.§Mt:a continuous blaze of light, which would be "fne'Saseif the' stars, in 'number and light unobstructed. Meteoric astronomy was little understood then, and Strove relied solely on star gauges. BecentTesearches into the nature and origin •f meteors tend to confirm Struve'a conjectures, for it & now certain that the quantity of meteorio matter moving in spase must De very great. It may be compared to the quantity of matter, in the . furs, a*n"d~yet cover a very much greater area of the , heavens, for the area covered depends on the state : •frdrvisl3h;ae well as on the quantity. If Jupiter • wei* divided' into fragments the size of marbles, round the Sun .at a distance nearly equal to that of Jupiter, they would form a cloudj envelope, enclosing the Snn.und minor planets on all tides* through which hardly a ray of light could pnss. v.;3liea.Getiniay.have.such clouds revolving ftbont.it. "■" Should future research establish this hypothesis, which is very, likely to be, the case, then it will „loJlow that the dark" portion of "the heavens bears ' the same proportion to the bright portion (the snn excluded) as the area.covered by the non-lnminsus to that covered by the luminous bodies. It will also follow that there is a limit from beyond wkicti b« light can ever reach us, and therefore we cau know nothing of what lies beyond this limit, except /l>y;anaipgy. The distance of this taut, in any direction, we shall probably never fcnow j but Strnye concludes, from calculations based oh trflescopia-power, that the most remote stars which have been seen ate by no means so distant as is generally supposed, and that their light suffers a loss of from 80 to 00 per cert, during {to passage to us. The blaok patches which occur In various parts of the heavens, such as the coat t at the Southern £ross, and the dark circles " Btrfroufiding nebuloos stars, are inexplicable on ttny other theory yet proposed. If we suppose them to be non'lnminous nebula, at moderate distances. wjoioh are themselves invisible, and become known to us by concealing what lies beyond, the explanatton is to some eztent'satlsfactory.