The sun's average distance from the earth is about 91,500,000 miles.
Since the orbit of the earth is elliptical, and the sun is situated at
one of its foci, the earth is nearly 3,000,000 miles further from
the sun in aphelion than in perihelion. As we attempt to locate the
heavenly bodies in space, we are immediately startled by the enormous
figures employed. The first number, 91,500,000 miles, is far beyond
our grasp. Let us try to comprehend it. If there were air to convey a
sound from the sun to the earth, and a noise could be made loud enough
to pass that distance it would require over fourteen years for it to
come to us. Suppose a railroad could be built to the sun. An express
train traveling day and night at the rate of thirty miles an hour,
would require 341 years to reach its destination. Ten generations
would be born and would die; the young men would become gray haired,
and their great-grandchildren would forget the story of the beginning
of that wonderful journey, and could find it only in history, as we
now read of Queen Elizabeth or of Shakespeare; the eleventh generation
would see the solar depot at the end of the route. Yet this enormous
distance of 91,500,000 miles is used as the unit for expressing
celestial distances--as the foot-rule for measuring space; and
astronomers speak of so many times the sun's distance as we speak of
so many feet or inches.
SIGNS OF STORMS APPROACHING.--A ring around the sun or moon stands for
an approaching storm, its near or distant approach being indicated by
its larger or smaller circumference. When the sun rises brightly and
immediately afterward becomes veiled with clouds, the farmer distrusts
the day. Rains which begin early in the morning often stop by nine
in place of "eleven," the hour specified in the old saw, "If it rains
before seven."
On a still, quiet day, with scarcely the least wind afloat, the
ranchman or farmer can tell the direction of impending storm by cattle
sniffing the air in the direction whence it is coming. Lack of dew in
summer is a rain sign. Sharp white frosts in autumn and winter precede
damp weather, and we will stake our reputation as a prophet that three
successive white frosts are an infallible sign of rain. Spiders do not
spin their webs out of doors before rain. Previous to rain flies sting
sharper, bees remain in their hives or fly but short distances, and
almost all animals appear uneasy.