Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, brilliant beauties that they are, have always been distinguished features of the heavenly view. The records of Mercury do not go back so far as those of these more easily seen planets, yet there is no reason to think that he has not been always known, though less widely, perhaps, than the four planets more frequently in view. To Uranus belongs the distinction of being the first planet that was discovered—a distinction that one cannot help but feel was too long delayed, for it did not come until 1781. For ages and ages his lovely pale beams had been shining down upon us from his little disc, no fainter in brilliancy than many a sixth-magnitude star (a degree of brightness which we think is within the limit of good vision, even in these days), and no human being had been conscious that this bright body was Uranus was not, however, discovered through observation of his movement among the stars. A view of his actual disc was caught by the musician and astronomer, Herschel, as he gleaned with his telescope in that part of the sky where the planet lay, one hundred and seventy-one years after the invention of that aid to vision. It was at first thought that a comet had been discovered, but later investigation showed a much more important member of the solar system, and the discovery of a new planet was announced. George III. was then King of England, and the loyal Herschel called the planet Georgium Sidus in honor of that monarch. The symbol of the planet as it appears in all almanacs—at least in all English almanacs—is a capital H with a planet swinging from the cross-bar in the letter, thus ?. And to this extent the discovery of the planet by Herschel is commemorated. In American almanacs the symbol is contracted into this figure ?. It is a matter for regret that Uranus does not come more easily within our view; for he is a very beautiful planet, pale green in color, and unlike any of the others in his aspect. There are, however, very few persons nowadays who can see him without the aid of at least a small glass, and to most of It requires a few days more than eighty-four years for Uranus to make one revolution around the sun, so that he moves even more slowly than Saturn from one constellation to another; and if we could only see him more easily, he would be scarcely more difficult to keep track of than a fixed star. He remains in each constellation somewhere near seven years and his change of place in the skies amounts in one year to but little more than four degrees, which is less than the distance between the pointers. Since Uranus was discovered he has made one circuit of the skies, which he finished in The synodic period of Uranus is about three hundred and sixty-nine days, so that an opposition occurs about four or five days later each year. He was in opposition this year (1912) on July 24th. In 1913 an opposition will take place on July 29th, and in 1914 on August 2d, and oppositions will occur about four days later each year thereafter. Uranus is twice as far from the sun as Uranus is smaller than either Jupiter or Saturn; but it is much larger than Mars, Venus, Mercury and the earth combined. Its diameter is nearly thirty-three thousand miles. Its volume is sixty-five times as great as that of the earth; but its mass is only about fourteen times the mass of the earth, which shows it to be a very much expanded body. It is slightly more dense than water, but only about two-tenths as dense as the earth. Its force of gravity is small for so large a body—only about nine-tenths that of the earth. There is every indication that the planet is not a solid body at all, and that it is, perhaps, largely vapor. We undoubtedly cannot see the surface of it; but through the telescope it faintly shows the same belted appearance that we see on Jupiter and on Saturn, though it is difficult to see the belted region, which is near the equator, because the axis of the planet is so inclined to its orbit that much of the time the poles are pointed almost toward us. The spectroscope indicates something of the same materials in its atmosphere that the other large and faraway planets have, and there is no reason to doubt that the planet is in a much earlier We really know nothing certainly about the rotation of Uranus; but there seems to be some indication that, like Jupiter and Saturn, it revolves swiftly—in perhaps ten or twelve hours, and hence has a very short day and night. The great inclination of its axis must make its seasons so abnormal, from our point of view, that it is difficult to understand what they are. Moreover, the planet is, at this stage of its development, so far from being a habitable body, for beings such as we know anything about, that the subject of its seasons seems not very important or interesting. It seems but fitting that this vapory, pale green planet should have satellites with the fairy names of Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. One can forgive a good many utilitarian feats in nomenclature for the sake of these charmingly appropriate names for the satellites of Uranus. Titania and Oberon were discovered in 1787 by Herschel, the discoverer of the planet. They are not very much farther from Uranus than our moon is from us, and are easily seen with a telescope. Titania, the nearer to Uranus and |