Our policy being a peaceful one, we are not going to engage in war except in self defense, and we do not need to keep up a large naval establishment in time of peace, but what we have should be the very best that can be obtained, and each individual ship and gun, and the personnel, should be of the most effective kind.
ASTRONOMY OF THE HEAVENS FOR JUNE.
By Prof. M. B. GOFF.
THE SUN
In the northern hemisphere the longest day of this year is the 20th of this month; though in many places it would be difficult to notice that there was really any difference between the length of this day and that of a few of those preceding and succeeding. The sun has reached his farthest point northward, and, although he travels about his usual distance each day, he moves in a part of his orbit which is, for all practical purposes, parallel to the equator, and hence must rise about the same place and hour each morning, and set at the same place and hour every evening. About the 21st of December of each year we have the shortest day, with several of the neighboring days but very little longer; for the reason that at that date the sun reaches its southern limit and moves almost parallel to the equator.
It may be interesting to see how our neighbors fare in regard to longest days. By the working of a few problems in spherical trigonometry we find that our friends living on the equator have all their days the same length, namely, twelve hours. So that there is in that region no looking forward to the long winter evenings, nor any hoping for the shortening of summer’s sultry days. They have, however, this advantage: If the sun’s rays do sometimes “come down by a straight road,” they do not continue so long at a time as with us. As we proceed north, we find in latitude 30° 48′ that the longest day is fourteen hours, in latitude 49° 2′, sixteen hours; in 58° 27′, eighteen hours; in 63° 23′, twenty hours; in 65° 48′, twenty-two hours; in 66° 32′, twenty-four hours, no night at all; and 51′ further north, that is, in latitude 67° 23′, the longest day begins about the fifth of June, and lasts till about the fourth of July, and is about thirty days long; in 73° 40′, it is three months long; in 84° 5′, it is five months; and at the north pole six months. Practically the days are longer than here represented; for we have natural light enough to pursue most vocations both before sunrise and after sunset. In latitude 63° 23′, for example, where the day’s extreme length is twenty hours, on account of the twilight the remaining four hours might as well be called daylight, for the sun descends only a few degrees below the horizon, and though hidden from sight, still through the medium of the atmosphere affords almost the usual light of day.
Of course our friends in the corresponding latitudes of the southern hemisphere are enjoying correspondingly short days and long nights. In 63° 23′ south latitude the day is only four hours long, and the night twenty hours. No wonder people sometimes say, “This is a queer world.” Its mechanism is certainly very wonderful. If we wished to be somewhat exact, we would say that the sun enters Cancer and summer begins on June 20th, at 7:51 p. m., Washington mean time, and continues ninety-three days, fourteen hours twenty-two minutes. Other items are as follows: On the 1st, 15th, and 30th, the sun rises at 4:31, 4:28, and 4:29 a. m.; and on the same dates sets at 7:24, 7:32, and 7:34 p. m. During the month our days vary in length from fourteen hours fifty-three minutes to fifteen hours five minutes; and on the 20th, the time from early dawn till the end of twilight is nineteen hours thirty minutes. On the 3rd, at 4:00 p. m., the sun is in conjunction with Saturn; on the 14th, at 3:00 p. m., 90° west of Uranus; on the 30th, at midnight, farthest from the earth; greatest elevation, in latitude 41° 30′ north, 71° 57′. Diameter decreases from 31′ 36″ on the 1st, to 31′ 32″ on the 30th.