Whose bright ruddy face, growing smaller every day, as it gradually moves
away from us and the sun, is still distinctly visible, being above the
horizon from 2:19 p. m., on the 1st, to 5:11 a. m., on the 2nd; from 1:21
p. m., on the 15th, to 4:11 a. m., on the 16th; and from 12:30 p. m.
on the 31st, to 3:12 a. m. on April 1st. During the month its diameter
decreases from 13.2′ to 10″. Up to the 12th, its motion is retrograde
56′ 36.6″. From that date to the end of the month, its motion is 1° 59′
6.3″ direct. On the 12th it is stationary; or, at least, appears so. On
the 22nd, it reaches its farthest point from the sun. It had often been
surmised that Mars had a satellite; but it was not until after the 11th
of August, 1877, that this supposition gave place to certainty. On the
night of the date mentioned, Professor Asaph Hall discovered, a little
east of the planet, a small object, which proved on further investigation
to be a small body making a revolution in about twenty-nine hours, or
as afterward appeared, in thirty hours eighteen minutes. Soon after was
seen still closer to Mars an object which proved to be another satellite
making a revolution about its primary in seven hours and thirty-nine
minutes. These satellites not only make their revolutions in the shortest
time, but are the least known heavenly bodies; the diameter of the outer
one being estimated by Professor Newcomb at from five to twenty miles,
and that of the inner at from ten to forty miles, the entire surface
being little if any larger than the “ranches” of some of our western
“farmer,” or “cattle kings.”
Between Mars and Jupiter, there was in 1801 discovered a small planet to
which was given the name Ceres; in 1802, another named Pallas; in 1804
another named Juno, and in 1807, another named Vesta. From 1807 to 1845,
discovery in that region seemed to cease; but since 1845 not less than
two hundred and twenty of these bodies have been found and named, and are
now called by the general name