it is yet far
from the limit where Saturn's control ceases and that of the sun becomes
predominant. That limit, according to Prof. Asaph Hall's calculation, is
nearly 30,000,000 miles from Saturn's center, while if our moon were
removed to a distance a little exceeding 500,000 miles the earth would
be in danger of losing its satellite through the elopement of Artemis
with Apollo.

Although, as already remarked, the satellites of Saturn are not
especially interesting to the amateur telescopist, yet it may be well to
mention that, in addition to Titan and Japetus, the satellite named
Rhea, the fifth in order of distance from the planet, is not a difficult
object for a three-or four-inch telescope, and two others considerably
fainter than Rhea--Dione (the fourth) and Tethys (the third)--may be
seen in favorable circumstances. The others--Mimas (the first),
Enceladus (the second), and Hyperion (the seventh)--are beyond the reach
of all but large telescopes. The ninth satellite, which has received the
name of Ph[oe]be, is much fainter than any of the others, its stellar
magnitude being reckoned by its discoverer at about 15.5.

Mars, the best advertised of all the planets, is nearly the least
satisfactory to look at except during a favorable opposition, like those
of 1877 and 1892, when its comparative nearness to the earth renders
some of its characteristic features visible in a small telescope. The
next favorable opposition will occur in 1907.

When well seen with an ordinary telescope, say a four-or five-inch
glass, Mars shows three peculiarities that may be called fairly
conspicuous--viz., its white polar cap, its general reddish, or
orange-yellow, hue, and its dark markings, one of the clearest of which
is the so-called Syrtis Major, or, as it was once named on account of
its shape, "Hourglass Sea." Other dark expanses in the southern
hemisphere are not difficult to be seen, although their outlines are
more or less misty and indistinct. The gradual diminution of the polar
cap, which certainly behaves in this respect as a mass of snow and ice
would do, is a most interesting spectacle. As summer advances in the
southern hemisphere of Mars, the white circular patch surrounding the
pole becomes smaller, night after night, until it sometimes disappears
entirely even from the ken of the largest telescopes. At the same time
the dark expanses become more distinct, as if the melting of the polar
snows had supplied them with