Page:Astronomy for Everybody.djvu/225

Jupiter, the "giant planet," is, next the sun, the largest body of the solar system. It is, in fact, more than three times as large, and about three times as massive as all the other planets put together. Yet, such is the preponderating mass of our central luminary that the mass of Jupiter is less than one thousandth part that of the sun.

This planet is in opposition in September, 1903, October, 1904, November, 1905, and so on for several years afterward, about a month later every year. Near the time of opposition it may easily be recognised in the evening sky, both by its brightness and its colour. It is then, next to Venus, the brightest star-like object in the heavens. It can easily be distinguished from Mars by its whiter colour. If we look at it with a telescope of the smallest size, even with a good ordinary spy-glass, we shall readily see that instead of being a bright point, like a star, it is a globe of very appreciable dimensions. We shall also see what look like two shadowy belts crossing the disk. These were noticed and pictured two hundred years ago by Huygens. As greater telescopic power was used it was found that these seeming belts resolved themselves into very variegated cloud-like forms, and that they vary, not only from month to month, but even from