New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-12-21
Survey Of the starry Heavens.
BY FRoF. oLNsTED.

by Professor Olusted, Of Yale College. The bullng
was well filed by attentive auditory, who warmly
greeted the lecturer upon his maknghis appearance.
Alters few preliminary remarks in relation 70 some
inquiries made Of him 10 topics touched upon in his
former lectures Prof o. proceeded 70 say, that when
we looked abroad upon the wide expanse Of the heav'
ems. in starry night the fret thought that struck us
WIS the vsstness Of the scene-that the stars were
boundless in numbers and hence from all antiquity the
expression As the stars OF the sky, or
the sands upon the shore" But when we under
took count tie were surprised to find their
number 50 small. The frst enumerator Of the stars
WIS the ancient Hpparchus Of the Aexandrian school
and all that he could enunerate visible to the naked
eye but lO22. In fact, we could scarcely ever
seo-even though We stood upon the equator and
looked toward both Poles-more than thousand
stars in the heavens with the naked eye From very
carly period these had been arranged under the
names Of considerations. We found slluson made to
the considerations of the heavens In the Book of Job,
and also il was said in Hesiod and in Homer. To him
it appeared strange considering the ease with which
KNOWLEDGE Of the names of those consultations
acquired, that very few learned them. The stars
were 10 US a. unchange5le friends We might go
D the remotcst portions Of the elobe-we might go
to distant nations, where everything was different
from what we had been accustomed to-lanylagc,
costume, manners, habits but shl would these
consultations smile upon US even as they did
when we were at home, and with the same be-
ngnant aspect Moreover, while everything upon this
globe knew change-whie mountains had risen, vallies
had filed up, had changed their beds and rivers
their courses now looked upon the same stars in
the heavens that shobe upon Babylon in its pride that
Noah gazed upon that Adam and Eve sang the gories
ert-.
menis contrived by for his own use that much
aided his visual powers the telescope and the mic
roscope By the aid of the one he visited the re.
motest portions Of the UNIVERSE with the other de-
seconded to the examination of animal life through
myrhds OF beings below the insect that ficts
in the sunbeam The main object OF his discourse,
however, was to unfold the won1rous riches OF the
telescope
brief word by way OF explanation Of the principle
of the instrument An image was formed Of distant
celestial object and we then magnihed that image with
q magnfer. That the simplest annuncistion of
the principle of the telescope As could not go up
to the heavenly bodies then brought them down to
US and having obtained their image, then applied
our magnifer 10 that image the In the micro
scope we applied TO insect. diagram was here
exhibited showing the construction u the telescope and
the mode by which the rays Of light were concen
trated through the medium Of the lens The lecturer
then described the powers and dimensions Of Lord
Rosses Rev Mr. Crag's and Hershells telescopes. as
also Of the telescopes at Pulkoya near St Petersburg
and at Harvard College, Cambridge. The lecturer
considered the telescope al the latter place to be, even
though small in comparison with others, one Of tho
very be- for working purposes.
Allufion was also made In this connexion to the
nice skil with which ii necessary to apply the
more reconcile principles OF chemistry, the DOOR ne
of atomic proportions the casting Of the speculum
Of the large telescopes The lecturer also spoke in
warm terms Of the telescopes made in New forts-he
considered them among the very best in use. II we
turned the large telescopes upon one OF the fixed tar
the first thing that struck was the beauty and
density of the light. When il was directed, for In
stance, toward Sirius the Dog Star, the eye was
AZ once overpowered with a food Of light; IL
was like locking al molten furnace. Indeed, the
eye required protection like as though Il was gaz
ing at the MONDAY sun. But the Astronomer would
contemplate with more pleasure those humber Oh
jects such almost invisible 70 the naked eye,
and which poured their glores upon his vision in an
unexpected manner. Thus, for example, upon tel
esoopic examination Of the constellation known Is the
Seven Starr" Ii was resolved into series OF congees
Of most brilliant stars There was another consiells
ton called The Beehive" in Cancer, which was some
times mistaken for a comet 1t somewhat foggy in
appearance, bu, the common telescopes could re-
solve into clusters of stars brilliant the most spark
ling diamonds So with the galaxy" that traversed
the heavens-t was all resovabs into myriAds OF most
brilliant bodies sordng sight most delightful TO be-
hold II was well known that there were
many stars in the armament which, though
appearing single to the naked eye, were re-
81. II ~ frvof
,elescopes Thus for instance, the star Castor,
in GemipL was resolved into two. Hersehel, Sir
James South, and others, made the number of fixed
stars st Eve thousand Nor the two stars thus o.:
served always Of equal size They more generally ape
pesred a. one large star attended by small eompan-
ion The Polar Star illustration visible 70 the
naked eve Nor were these stars merely double: they
were sometimes resolved into three and even four
stars In the constellation Orion there weres very
orange nebulr, and in il . qusdruple star, which
resolved itself into a trspezium each star hav'
ing 4 ANAL companion II was remarkable tact In
refion to these doubs stars tina. they were not the
same in color with the other stars. They very often
displayed most beautifully brilliant colors Some were
receivable into green and red star-others, yellow
and blue and others again into two yellow stsrs
Then again some Of them resolved into two stars
sre of which revolved around the ether ike our plan
es, around the Sun These were called Binary starr
Was that revolution Of planet round panes'-No Il
wa that Of sun round Sun, for planet could
not TRANSMIT, rs its light from such distance
A, first night might not appear so very interesting
fact that star reyolved around STAR but thsn leads 20
very important conclusions, viz that the law OF grsvi
tsor, the basis Of Keplers Iawi Influenced the move.
menis Of bodies 80 far away from the utmost nn Oh
our sys:em that the mind scarcely cohesive me
ds,snce Newton himssf did not vouch for the exist
erce Of he controlling influence Of the law Of gra'a
tion further than IL bore upon the relation sabsisrins
between the crrsh and the Inoon Modern discovery
extended to the entire of our system sus further
than that Astronomers did not go-when they ap-
pied d beyond that their specalations were based
upon cosjcefure only Nov. howevsr, since the dis