Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1892 — THE OCCULATION OF MARS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE OCCULATION OF MARS.

now the Interesting Event Appeared Through • Detroit Telescope. - - ~ • ■■■ yy*', It is particularly unfortunate that the weather should have been so unpropitious for the ocetritation Saturday night, as these occurrences ore sufficiently rare to make them very interesting. While occaltations occur quite frequently to some portion of the earth’s surface, yet the conditions of time and location are so variable thattbe chances for seeing one in any particular locality are few and far-between; thus, the next one

to occur this year will be that of Saturn, on November 15, which will occur between 2 and 3 in the morning, at which time the moon will not yet have risen in this latitude, so that the ingress would be invisible, even if one cared to get up at that time in the morning to view it. * While the sky was largely veiled with clouds, fortunately they were well interspersed with breaks and clear places, and I was fortunate enough to catch both ingress and egress very briefly during the interval of a small break ia the clouds, and herewith present The Free Press with sketches of those phases of the occultation. The ingress was made behind the dark limb of the moon, which showed the segment of a large circle upon the comparative-

l.y small disc of Mars, while the egress was from behind the light portion of the moon. The time of occulation at Washington was given as 1:44 a. m.; bat; as the moon advanced toward the planet from the west, it was,readily apparent that it would occur much earlier than the actual differences of time for all places west of Washington. The City Hall clock was pointing at 11:54 when the planet disappeared behind the moon and also behind a dense cloud; the egress or reappearence of the planet took place three quarters of an hour later.

DISC OF MARS HALF COVERED BY MOON

MARS AT EMERSION FROM MOON.