The Ways of the Planets

Part 1

Transcriber’s notes:

The text of this book has been preserved as in the original, apart from a few obvious misspellings.

Corrected misspellings and redundancies include the following:

comparsion —> comparison dining —> during clamly —> calmly atronomer —> astronomer oi —> of the —> (deleted) a —> (deleted)

In this digital version, paired underscores denote italicised text. Footnotes have been positioned below the relevant paragraphs.

The text contains symbols that will not necessarily display correctly with all viewing devices, and one symbol (for the Full Moon) cannot be replicated digitally. It is represented in this text by an open circle. For best viewing, the device’s character encoding should be set to Unicode (UTF-8), and a Unicode font selected such as Arial Unicode MS, DejaVu, Segoe UI Symbol or FreeSerif.

In the process of evolution the dense center becomes the controlling sun and the smaller spots of condensation form the planets. This particular nebula lies just under the end of the handle of the Big Dipper. It was photographed at Mt. Wilson Observatory.]

THE WAYS OF THE PLANETS

BY MARTHA EVANS MARTIN, A.M. AUTHOR OF “THE FRIENDLY STARS”

NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS MCMXII

COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY HARPER & BROTHERS

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PUBLISHED OCTOBER, 1912

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. ON MAKING ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE PLANETS 1

II. OUR RELATION TO THE PLANETS 11

III. WHAT THE PLANETS ARE, AND WHAT THEY APPEAR TO BE 17

IV. THE ORIGIN OF THE PLANETS 26

V. THE SEVEN GREAT PLANETS 38

VI. THE MOVEMENTS OF THE PLANETS 46

VII. HOW THE INFERIOR PLANETS SEEM TO MOVE 56

VIII. HOW THE SUPERIOR PLANETS SEEM TO MOVE 65

IX. THE PATH OF THE PLANETS 71

X. MERCURY--WHEN AND WHERE TO FIND MERCURY--DISTANCE AND BRIGHTNESS--MERCURY’S SIZE AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF IT-- WHAT THE SUN DOES FOR MERCURY--TRANSITS 93

XI. VENUS--WHEN AND WHERE TO SEE VENUS--DISTANCE AND BRILLIANCY--VENUS’S LIKENESS TO THE EARTH--ATMOSPHERE, DAY AND NIGHT, AND SEASONS--TRANSITS 122

XII. MARS--HOW TO IDENTIFY MARS--WHEN AND WHERE MARS MAY BE SEEN--SIZE, ATMOSPHERE, AND TEMPERATURE--DISTANCE AND BRILLIANCY--DAY AND NIGHT, AND SEASONS--SURFACE ASPECTS--SATELLITES 151

XIII. JUPITER--PLACE IN THE SKY--DISTANCE, LIGHT, AND HEAT-- DAY AND NIGHT, SEASONS, AND ATMOSPHERE--SURFACE FEATURES--SYSTEM OF SATELLITES 183

XIV. SATURN--AROUND ONE CIRCUIT OF THE SKIES WITH SATURN-- DISTANCE AND SIZE--SURFACE ASPECTS AND CONSTITUTION-- DAY AND NIGHT--THE RINGS AND MOONS OF SATURN--SEASONS 206

Part 2

XV. URANUS 225

XVI. NEPTUNE 234

XVII. THE LITTLE PLANETS, OR THE ASTEROIDS 244

XVIII. CONCLUSION 258

SYMBOLS USED IN ALMANACS 267

INDEX 269

ILLUSTRATIONS

A WHIRLING SPIRAL NEBULA, TYPICAL OF THAT FROM WHICH THE SUN AND PLANETS WERE PROBABLY EVOLVED Frontispiece

MAP SHOWING THE CONSTELLATIONS OF THE ZODIAC AND THE LINE OF THE ECLIPTIC RUNNING THROUGH THEM Facing p. 76

THE LOVELY CRESCENT THAT VENUS SHOWS WHEN TO OUR VIEW SHE IS AT HER GREATEST BRILLIANCY " 136

RELATIVE APPARENT SIZE OF VENUS AT DIFFERENT PHASES OF ILLUMINATION Page 137

THE TWO PHASES OF MARS Facing p. 152

MARS: DIFFERENCE IN ITS APPARENT SIZE AT ITS NEAREST, MIDDLE, AND FARTHEST DISTANCE FROM THE EARTH Page 169

JUPITER, THE MAMMOTH MEMBER OF THE SOLAR FAMILY-- LARGER THAN ALL THE OTHER PLANETS PUT TOGETHER Facing p. 184

SATURN AND ITS RINGS " 220

THE

WAYS OF THE PLANETS

ON MAKING ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE PLANETS

It is sought in the following pages to give a simple account of what may now be said to be known of the character of the planets, and to describe with as little technicality as possible their movements and aspects and relations. An endeavor is made to impart concerning each one of them not, surely, profound learning, but just a good, every-day, practical notion, so that the mere name will call up a definite object, with its own attributes, appearance, and behavior, entirely distinct from any other planet or from any other object in the skies.

An endeavor is made also to so simplify and direct the observation that any one, after a little practice, will know almost without hesitation, on seeing a planet in the sky, that it is a planet, and not a fixed star, and exactly what planet it is. The situation and aspect of it will then as quickly and clearly pronounce it to be the individual planet that it is as the sight of a person of one’s acquaintance proclaims him to be that person, and no other. The very name of Venus, for example, and still more the sight of Venus, will call up a conception of Venus, with the particular atmosphere and light and movements and wanderings which make her what she is. On looking at her the observer will at once know why she occupies the special position in the sky in which he sees her, why she is not so bright as she was when she was last in view, or is so much brighter than she was then, about how long she is likely to remain where she is, and when she goes what will become of her.

For far off and truly mysterious as the planets are, it still is with them as with most other objects in nature: a very little knowledge of their aspects and their ways begets a sense about them that makes the most casual observation of them interesting and, as far as it goes, intelligent. The slightest glance at them betrays some shape, or position, or light, or other quality, which at once makes recognition of them unmistakable. They disclose themselves oftentimes, one can scarcely say how, just as persons with whom we are intimate do by some half-caught outline, motion, or posture; or just as the trees do to an observer who knows, for example, an oak-tree from an elm, whether they are covered with their own peculiar verdure, or whether they stand with bare branches stretched out and colored in their own peculiar way.

This instant recognition of the planets is, of course, not to be had by simply reading about them. Such practical familiarity with them is attained only by seeking them out over and over again and looking at them with attention, with eagerness, and with all one’s faculty. With them, as with other natural objects, it requires observation truly to know them. But then, observation, when one gets a little started in it, is a great deal more interesting, a great deal more absorbing, than any reading about them can ever be. It is also a very easy thing to begin, for, after all, it is not much more than looking and then looking again. In doing this one can hardly tell just when an object ceases to be strange, and then becomes familiar, and finally is so much a part of every-day knowledge that one knows it at a glance. But this is what happens in the case of any natural object when we observe it often and with true attention.

In the case of the planets, if one is interested at all, every stage in the cultivation of such an acquaintance is full of pleasure. Even to one who regards them only as a part of the general aspect of the sky, they are the most beautiful objects in it and always the first to attract special attention. Nine times out of ten, when any one asks what a certain star is, it proves to be one of the planets. When one of them is visible a person can hardly glance at the heavens without noticing it, even if he does not stop to think about it. But if he does stop to think about it and notices that it is far larger than any star he has noted before, that it hangs low in the western sky early in the evening, and shines with a brilliant silvery light, and if he then learns that it is Venus, will he not always have a pleasant thrill of recognition when he again sees such a star in such a position and knows it as Venus, among the planets as surpassing in beauty as the goddess of that name was among the immortals? Or, if in the east, at the same time in the evening, he sees a brilliant, solid-looking, unblinking star shining with a white light, but pinkish white, not silvery, and finds it to be Jupiter, will not such a star in such a situation be to him ever after a pleasant acquaintance that he can call by name? Not that Jupiter and Venus are always in these positions, or shine in just this way at all times. These are their places and aspects at certain times, frequently recurring, and at such times always unmistakably distinguish them.

It is, then, merely the matter of a little more and yet a little more observation, in order to come to know any one of the visible planets in all its varying aspects and situations. Of course, at the start some guidance is necessary, but only a little; and that little, if it is of the right sort, should not be irksome. To provide such guidance is one of the aims of this book. That is, indeed, its main aim.

Continue reading The Ways of the Planets free in the Wunder reader →