Burr and Burton Academy - Burtonian Yearbook (Manchester, VT)

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THE BURTONIAN MY HOBBY SKINNER PRIZE ESSAY By Carlos Warner 1931 OBSERVATIONAL ASTRONOMY Obstervatlonal Astronomy IS the sc1ence of obsexvmg the heavenly bodxes ln thexr trajectory courses through the celestlal sphere The heavenly bodxes may be dxvxded lnto two groups 1 The self lum1nous lbOdl8S and 2 The non luminous bodies The stars and comets are among the self lum1nous b0d16S our sun bemg the nearest star to us and the non lumxnous sbodxes are planets wlth or wlthout satellltes astero1ds and meteors Up to now there have been mne planets dlscovered the newest bemg Pluto Wh1Ch was dxscovered very recently The planets also mlght be put 1nto two groups Wh1Ch are 1 Non-satelht1c planets a.nd 2 Satellltlcs The planets under the non satellltlc group are Mercury wh1ch 1S too small to hold even an atmosphere from the sun Venus whlle alble to hold an atmosphere and IS called our slster planet has not a moon Pluto IS of rather small slze and the exlstence of a satellxte IS dulbxous The planets under the satellltlc group have the maJor1ty 1n the solar sys tem These planets may be dlvlded 1nto three classes namely The Earth Moon system the Jovlan type and the Saturman type The Earth IS the only planet 1n the Earth Moon type It forms a sort of bmary system of planets The dxameter of the Moon IS one fourth of that of the Earth and 1ts mass IS one percent of that of thls planet thereby causmg a revolutlon of the two planets albout a common center of gravlty some three thousand mlles from the center of the Earth The JOVISII system dxifers greatly from the Earth Moon type ln that xt has mne satellltes and IS twelve thousand tlmes the slze of 1ts largest moon Calllsto Also ln thxs class are 1 The Martlan satell1tes two m number 2 The Uraman satellxtes Wh1Ch are four 3 Neptune wlth hls slngle unnamed moon The Saturnlan type holds only one planet wbut lS most peculxar and 1nter estmg probably the most 1Ilt6!'8StlDg of the three The planet bes1des havxng nlne 1nd1v1dua1 satellltes has a rlng of meteor1c partlcles enclrclmg xt wh1ch IS d1v1ded mto three separate rxngs by 11nes of dark xntervenlng The d1v1s1ons of the rlng are A B and C The dlameter of A or the extenor rmg IS 173 000 mxles and It IS of a golden hue B rs sxlver and the brlghtest of the three C IS called the gauze rxng and IS vxs1ble only ID the more powerful telescopes Contlnulng w1th our non lummous ubodles we come upon the meteor the wanderer of the heavens Most people know that wxthouththe atmosphere that envelopes the earth ' 1 , , A Y . . D W . 1 1 ' 1 1 1 ' 1 1 . B. , , , . . , . ' 1 1 ' - 1 1 . . I . , . . , . 1 ' ' 1 1 . ,' , . 1 ' 1 u