Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1874-10-09
luantity of the apparent movement of

quantity OF Lne apparent movement Vi
the brightest stars, which used to be re-
garded as the nearest; but their efforts
were fruitless, owing to the inconsiderable
amount of this motion. There was need
Of instruments of the utmost precision,
rigid spirit of observation, and an in
domitable patience in order to get at
trustworthy results.
Since 1910 the attention of astrono-
mers has been eftentimes directed to this
investigation, and thousands of calcula-
tons have been made. With great dill
Guilty astronomers have succeeded in de-
termining the parallaxes of a teao stars
But the inevitable errors of observation
often involve the results in obscurity.
Let the reader only bear in mind that
there is not one star that is sufficiently
near to give us parallex of one second!
A second is the dimension to which
would be reduced a circle one meter q
feet 3.37 inches) in diameter carried away
to distance of 206 kilometers 02772
miles, from the eye. This appears to be
less than nothing; it is equal to the thick
ness of hair stretched at the distance
from the eye of 20 meters GA feet. The
apparent annual movement of star
whose distance can be known is per-
| formed altogether within this infinitesi-
NAL space For ali observer on the star
| that is nearest to us, this hair would con-
ceal the whole space between the earth
| and the sun.
| AS no star offers parallex of one sec
ond, it follows that the nearest of the
stars is distant from the earth no less
than zoe, 1866 times 100000 miles. The
space which surrounds the planetary sys-
| tenn is void of stars to that distance at
| least.
The star which is nearest to us, Alpha
of Centaur, has a parallex of 81 sec. Its
distance from the earth is 226, 400 times
the radius of the earths orbit, or 81 ,00O,-
O00, 900, 900 miles This is our 1ae6gbb0r
star, and it's distance is probably the min
imum distance between star and star
81 900, 900, 900, 900 miles. Each of these
stars shines with it's own lights a sun
like our own.
The second star in the order of dis
tances is 81 Cygni. Its parallex is 81
Sec, and it's remoteness 81, 900 ,0O0, OOO, 900
miles.
Of the thousands of stars which have
been studied, we know the distances Of
only twenty. Among these we may sig
nalize Sirius, sun 2,68S times larger
than our own, surrounded by system of
heavenly bodies, several of which are al
ready known, and distant from us 81, 000,-
000,000,000 miles; the Polar Star, which
is double star, distant 292, 900, 100000
900 miles; and Capella, distant 425,000-
100000, 000-a space which is traversed
b. light in seventy-one years and eight
LIonths; so that the luminous ray which
reaches us from this fine star in 1874
must have started out in 1903! Capella
might have been extinguished in 1904,
but we should see it still 1t might go
out to-day, and yet the inhabitants of
the earth would continue to admire it in
their heavens until 1916. Conversely, if
there existed, on the planets gravitating
round Capella, minds whose transcend
ent vision could thence descry our little
earth, lost as il is amid the suns rays,
they would now see the earth of the year
1S03 and would be seventy-one years
eight months behindhand in its history
These are the stars that are nearest to us.
The others are incomparably more re-
mote. There are stars whose light can
not reach us in less than 100, 1000 or
10000 years, though light travels at the
rate of $4,000 miles per second! To
form part (the Milky Way, light takes
1O,OOO years. IL IGdCH us 1rOu C0Tldlu
of the nebul3 it must travel for three
hundred times that period, or 100000
years. Let the Imagination, that is not
appalled, by these immensities, strive to
conceive of them. If it does not expert
ence the "vertigo of the infinite" let it
calmly contemplate these abysses, and
realize the position of the earth and of
man in presence of them. Thus will it
gain some conception of the discoveries
made by sidereal astronomy. Such are
the dimensions actually measured in the
general constitution of the universe. AS
yet we are only at the vestibule of the
edifice, ON the edge of the abyss of infin-
itude; and we shall never pene-
trate very far beyond.-PopuIar Science
Monthly.