Professor Pickering, who has written a book called "Mars," gives the following interesting information as to how the planet appears through the telescope at Flagstaff: "We may examine the moon some night through a small opera-glass. The sharpness and amount of detail visible in the two cases will be similar, although the appearance of the two bodies is quite unlike."
General public interest in Mars is probably keener than in any other planet and since the great event of August 23rd, 1924, when Mars shone like a lantern in the sky, this interest will probably grow greater than ever. This small matter of 34,648,000 miles—not much over a third of the distance to the sun away from us—is almost as near as the earth and Mars will ever approach one another.
An association of observers interested in Mars who are stationed in different parts of the world has recently been formed. All parts of the planet are now kept under inspection and regular reports are sent to a central bureau which publishes the results in an astronomical magazine.
THE SATELLITES OF MARS
The following story is often related in connection with the satellites of Mars: Many years before the satellites were discovered, Swift, in "Gulliver's Travels," described the little planet as having two moons, one of which flew across the Martian sky three times a day! The thing seemed absurd, for never during all the explorations of the solar system had a moon been found which behaved in such an erratic fashion. Nevertheless, in 1877. Professor Asaph Hall, of Washington, discovered two tiny attendants to the planet of the War-god weaving "like golden shuttles" around the Martian orb, and one of these made three revolutions in its orbit while the planet itself turned once on its axis! Thus the month of this surprising moon is less than eight hours long.
This little rapid-transit moon flies only 3700 miles above the planet's surface, and, on account of the curvature of the globe it would not be visible beyond 69 degrees of latitude on each side of the equator. As seen from Mars, it rises in the west and sets in the east, changing from new to full one and a half times every night! With the constantly recurring metamorphoses of this tiny moon, which is scarcely 7 miles in diameter, and its most exceedingly rapid flight, it would seem that there would be some reason in naming it Phobos (Fear), after one of Mars' attendants. On account of its nearness to the surface of Mars, Phobos would appear to a Martian about the same size as our moon does to us.
The other moon, which was named Deimos (Terror), is about 14 miles in diameter and is 12,500 miles from the planet. Its period is also very short, being only 30 hours and 18 minutes. Since this period is only a few hours more than the rotation period of Mars, the moon moves very slowly across the sky, remaining continuously above the horizon of any given place on the planet for more than 60 hours. It has been computed that these two small moons would cause 1400 eclipses of the sun a year, as seen from Mars. They are the smallest objects visible in the sky, as seen from earth.
Our month of March, as well as this fiery-hued planet, was named after the War-god. Since Tuesday was also named after the War-god, it might be well to mention here how the other days and months obtained their names.
In the early days of Astrology, a "science" which was based on legends and myths, the names of the five planets then known were given to the days of the week. Apollo, the Sun-god, gave his name to Sunday, and his sister, Goddess Diana, to Monday, and these two days retained their names, but the days which followed those named for the sun and moon later became Germanized, as it were, or the names of the originally imported gods translated into those of the Germanic divinities. Thus the name of the Northern Sword-god Tyr, who resembles the Roman War-god Mars, was given the day of the week held sacred to Mars, now known as Tuesday, or Tiu's day, Mercury's day became Wodan's or Wednesday, Jove's day was called Thor's or Thursday, and the day of Venus transformed into Friday, the day of Freya, the wife of Wodan. The day of Saturnus, retained under this name in some northern tongues, became a langardage, or a bathing day, in others. As for the months—October and February were names derived from Roman festivals; a horse named October was sacrificed to the War-god Mars during this month, while February derived its name from the Roman festival Februalia, from februare, to purify. April, meaning Aprilis, from aperire to open, obtained its name because it was the season when the buds began to open. September (septem, seven), November (novem, nine), and December (decern, ten) were the 7th, 9th and 10th months of the year of the Roman calendar when the year consisted of 10 months. January was named after Janus, the porter with the double head which enabled him to look back into the past and forward into the future; May after Maia, one of the Pleiades; and June, after Juno, Queen of the gods and the Goddess of Marriage. Quintilis, the 5th month of the Roman year, which began in March, was named July in honor of Julius Cæsar, while the 6th month, which was originally styled Sextilis, received its present name, August, from the Emperor Augustus.
THE RINGED PLANET OF SATURN, THE GOD OF TIME