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Astronomical Occurrences

In NOVEMBER 1829.

SOLAR PHENOMENA.

THE Sun enters Sagittarius at 53 m. after 12 on the 22d of this month; and he rises and sets during the same period as in the following Table. The times for the intermediate days must be found by proportion, as already explained.

TABLE

Of the Sun's Rising and Setting for every fifth Day.

November 1st, Sun rises 12 m. after 7, sets 48 m. after 4

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Equation of Time.

By subtracting the numbers given in the following Table from 12 hrs. when it is exactly noon by a good sun-dial, the results will be the mean corresponding time.

TABLE

Of the Equation of Time for every fifth Day.

m. 8.

Sunday, November 1st, from the time by the dial sub. 16 16

Friday

6th.

Wednesday

......

Monday

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Saturday

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Thursday

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16 12

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LUNAR PHENOMENA.

Phases of the Moon.

First Quarter.. 4th day, at 51 m. after 9 in the morning
Full Moon....11th..

.....

..46........ 1

Last Quarter...18th........ .51.

8 ........

.......

New Moon ....26th....... ..30........ O at noon.

Moon's Passage over the Meridian.

The Moon will pass the first meridian at the following times this month, which will afford opportu

nities of observation, for the exercise of our young readers, should the weather be favourable: viz.

November 2d, at 47 m. after 4 in the afternoon

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The brilliancy of this beautiful planet is now increasing, and the proportion of her bright and dark parts are

November 1stDark part...... = 3.53096
Illuminated part = 8.46904

Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites.

None of these eclipses will be visible this month.

Conjunction of the Moon with the Planets and Stars. November 3d, with 8 in Capricorn, at 4 in the afternoon

7. Taurus.... 3 in the morning

12th

12th

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.. Taurus

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12th .28 Taurus.... 5.

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12th .... α Taurus.... 9.

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B. Virgo...... 8 in the evening

20th
25th
30th

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" Libra

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3 in the afternoon

Capricorn.. 9 in the evening.

Other Phenomena.

Mercury will be stationary on the 5th of this month, and attain his greatest elongation on the 14th. Saturn will be in quadrature at half past 12 on the 10th, and stationary on the 29th.

DOUBLE AND TRIPLE STARS.

[From the Literary Gazette.]

Next to nebulæ, and scarcely inferior in interest, are those combinations of stars which appear to be mutually connected by the laws of gravitation. Nebulæ suggest to our thoughts, that the interminable range of space, boundless, shoreless, fathomless as it is, is filled with the wonders of creation; while the double, triple, and multiple stars intimate those laws which unite together the vast provinces of the universe. In nebulæ the mind is bewildered with the mysterious vastness which their form, multitude, and distance, unfold: we believe each nebula to be a system of fixed stars, each star a sun, with its attendant planetary bodies, all obeying the same laws which bind our solar system to its centre; while the Sun itself is either one of a double star, swinging round the centre of gravity of the two, or a member of a more complicated system of motion. There is foundation for this, from actual observations of other stars, and the change of the Sun's place relative to the Arcturus, Capella, Aldebaran, and others of our system, by which it is ascertained that the Sun, with its planets, is moving towards the constellation Hercules. In double, triple, and more complicated combinations of stars is traced the existence of central forces, on such a grand and magnificent scale as reduces all our ideas of planetary motions and periods to the sporting of an ephemera in the sunbeam. Among the most remarkable of these are Castor, round which moves a small star, the period of which is 342 years and two months; Serpentis, period of the small star, 375 years; y Virginis, period 708 years; y Leonis, period 1200 years; & Boötes, period 1681 years. These, with many others, are called binary systems. In treble stars the periods must be more complicated: a treble star is in the foot of the Unicorn, which, at first sight, appears double, but one of these, on more k k

minute inspection, will be found to consist of two. This treble star was considered by a celebrated astronomer the most beautiful sight in the heavens. In Libra is a double-double star, each star being itself a double star; in Orion is a double-treble star, or two sets of treble stars; in the same constellation there is a multiple star, consisting of twelve, one of which is a double star. One striking peculiarity of these and similar stars is, their diversity of colour, rarely two of the same colour in the same combination,-red and blue, white and ash-colour, orange and purple, red and bluish-green, bluish-white and garnet, white and gray,-these being the prevailing hues. It has been attempted, by observations on double stars, to determine the parallax of the earth's orbit, it being justly supposed, that if these stars were at rest, their distance from each other would be slightly altered according to the earth's position in its annual course. It was in pursuing this investigation that the motion of stars about their centres of gravity was established. This important and interesting inquiry, relative to the parallax of the fixed stars, has been attended with some degree of success by Dr. Brinkley, the present Bishop of Cloyne, who has obtained from the following stars the results as against them expressed.

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If the last of these results be an approximation to the truth, the distance of a Lyræ from our Sun is nearly twenty billions of miles,-a distance through which light could not travel in less than three years. How distant, then, are those stars whose light is but dimly seen with telescopic aid! and how much more inconceivably remote must the nebula be!

The NORTHERN STAR.

[Written at Tynemouth, Northumberland.]

6 The Northern Star

Sailed o'er the bar,

Bound to the Baltic Sea:

In the morning grey

She stretched away

'Twas a weary day to me.

And many an hour,

In sleet and shower,

By the light-house rock I stray,
And watch till dark

For the winged bark

Of him that's far away.

'The churchyard's bound
I wander round,

Among the grassy graves;
But all I hear

Is the North wind drear,

And all I see, the waves!'

Oh roam not there,

Thou mourner fair,

Nor pour the fruitless tear;

Thy plaint of woe

Is all too low

The dead, they cannot hear.

The Northern Star

Is set afar,

Set in the raging sea;

And the billows spread

O'er the sandy bed

That holds thy love from thee!

Newcastle Courant, and Watts's Poetical Album.

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