Astronomical Occurrences

In DECEMBER 1823.

SOLAR PHENOMENA.

THE Sun enters Capricornus at 14 m. past 2 in the afternoon of the 22d of this mouth; when

WINTER comes to rule the year,

Sullen and sad, with all his rising train;
Vapours, clouds and storms.

Now, when the cheerless empire of the sky
To Capricorn the Centaur Archer yields,
And fierce Aquarius stains th' inverted year;
Hung o'er the farthest verge of Heaven, the Sun
Scarce spreads through ether the dejected day.
Faint are his gleams, and ineffectual shoot
His struggling rays, in horizontal lines,
Thro' the thick air, as clothed in cloudy storm,
Weak, wan, and broad, he skirts the southern sky;
And, soon descending, the long dark night,
Wide shading all, the prostrate world resigns.

THOMSON.

The Sun also rises and sets on the following days during this month as below.

TABLE

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

If the quantities in the first five lines of the following table be subtracted from the time as given by a good Sun-dial, or those in the other two lines be added to these times, the results will be the mean times for the respective epochs.

TABLE

Of the Equation of Time for every fifth Day.

m. S.

Monday, Dec. Ist, from the time by the dial subtract 10 55

Saturday,
Thursday,

Tuesday,

Wednesday,

855 6 42

4 19

1.51

0 38

3 6

26th, to the time by the dial add

LUNAR PHENOMENA.

Phases of the Moon.

2d day, at 36 m. past 1 in the afternoon

New Moon,

First Quarter, 10th

56

6 in the evening

Full Moon, 17th

Moon's Passage over the Meridian.

The following passages of the Moon over the first meridian during this month have been selected as affording good opportunities for observation, should the weather prove favourable:

December 8th, at 38 m. after 4 in the evening

Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites.

These eclipses are very numerous this month, and among those of the first and second satellites the following will be visible, viz.

Immersions.

First Satellite, 4th day, at 0m. 20s. after 4 in the morning

First Satellite

Emersions.

6 evening

30th, at 19 m. 45 s. after 7 in the evening

Second Satellite 30th, 34 m. 33 s..

11 at night

Form of Saturn's Ring.

This still shows a considerable opening, and its telescopic appearance is a pleasing spectacle; for

Transverse axis

December 1st, Conjugate axis

TABLE

1.000 0.426

Other Phenomena.

The Moon will be in conjunction with a in Scorpio at 6 m. after 9 in the morning of the 2d; with Georgium Sidus, at 43 m. after 1 in the morning

of the 5th; with Jupiter, at 14 m. past 5 in the afternoon of the 18th; and again with a in Scorpio, at 12 m. after 3 in the afternoon of the 29th. Mercury will be in his superior conjunction at 30 m. after 9 in the morning of the 13th. Venus will attain her greatest elongation on the 19th. Mars will be in quadrature at 45 m. after 5 in the evening of the 21st; and Jupiter will be in opposition at a quarter after 12 at noon, on the 28th of this month.

Thus have we traced the revolving seasons to their close, followed the heavenly bodies in their motions, and marked the most striking phenomena which they exhibit. Can the contemplative mind consider these things, and reflect upon that wonderful precision in all the heavenly motions which enables us to calculate the commencement, duration, and end of the phenomena, even to a second, without being led

Through Nature up to NATURE'S GOD?

Little is that mind to be envied, that can contemplate all these celestial wonders with stoical apathy; and we delight to call the ardour of our youthful readers to these magnificent subjects of wonder and admiration, that they may, with all the enthusiasm of the poet, exclaim:

With what an awful world-revolving pow'r

Were first th' unwieldy Planets launched along
Th' inimitable void! There to remain
Amidst the flux of many thousand years,
That oft have swept the toiling race of men,
And all their laboured monuments away.
Firm, unremitting, matchless in their course;
To the kind-tempered change of night and day,
And of the seasons ever stealing round,
Minutely faithful. Such th' all-perfect Hand,
That poised, impels, and rules the steady whole.

REFLECTIONS ON THE STARRY HEAVENS.

[Concluded from

p. 329.]

LEO (), the Lion.

Leo is the second of the summer signs, and the fifth in the order of the zodiac. The Earth is now in Aquarius, and the terminator begins again to approach the north pole, and to contract the limits of constant day in the arctic regions. The days and nights also approximate nearer to an equality in their duration. As the Lion is remarkable for his fierceness and strength, popular tradition represents him as having been chosen as a fit emblem of the Sun's heat at this season of the year. Then the Lion was supposed to be obliged to quit the Lybian desert through thirst, and repair to the banks of the Nile to partake of its cooling stream; the Egyptians are, therefore, said to have adopted this animal as the symbol most emblematical of the Sun, when his heat is the most oppressive. The fabulous representations of the Greeks affirm, that the sign of the Lion was intended to commemorate the Neumean Lion, which was killed by Hercules. There can, however, be no doubt that it was adopted by the oriental nations long anterior to that era. The Sun in Leo was worshipped by the Egyptians as the King Osiris, which, according to Herodotus, was the same with Bacchus. For a curious disquisition on the Egyptian origin and import of this sign, we must refer the interested reader to page 40 of the Celestial Atlas, already mentioned.

Leo has for his contiguous constellations, Leo Minor on the north, Virgo on the east, Sextans on the south, and Cancer on the west. The whole number of stars within its limits is 95; including two of the 1st magnitude, two of the 2d, six of the 3d, and thirteen of the 4th. The principal star is a Regulus, which is situated on the ecliptic, and is often called "Cor Leonis, the Lion's Heart.' The other star of