Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1874-02-03

I
IL the shoulder Of Orion and Myra, in
the Whale which underwent grave
changes in apparent magnitude, gave
these sun-spots spectra. Secchj began
this work. Huygins and Miller car
ried 1t out, de termining the presence
in the stars of h. drogen, sO.iium, mag
nesium, iron, tellurium. bislneth, an
timOny. and cadmium. The dark
bands of the spectrum determined not
only the presence of these elements but
their presence in certain conditions.
Sometimes the hydrogen was cooler
than the mass beneath and INSTRUCTED
the light. Sometimes it was the same
temperature and shone with the same
brightness; then again az in the star
of 1868. which so rapidly increased
and then decreased in magnitude, il
was brighter than the mass behind it
and showed in the spectrum glowing
lines. What caused the colors of the
| double stars? Beta Cygni was a
| double star, one component being
orange aud The other blue. Was the
| cQlor inherent in the bodies themselves
| or derived from the envelopes sur
| rounding them? The blue star gave
dark bands opposite the orange of the
| spectrum, ana so something Obstruct
| ing the orange light there was super.
| abundance of blue. The orange star
gave bands in the biue and left super
! abundance of orange. So the colors
red, green, and blue, were die to the
envelope of the star aud not to the star
| itself Perhaps they were evidences of
| passage into cooler state. Generally
IT was the smaller compaGion star only
that showed the color. Jupiter ami
| Saturn, 10 an observer of the solar
system posted at some distant star,
would probably appear as companion
| stars TO the sun. and might very likely
be colored. Passing 10 nehulSe it was
found that were two sorts. Some
| were glorious clusters of suns. Wee
there any worlds in those clusters the
inhabitants would never know night.
Great suns would be rising every hour;
| and so, having no night. they could
never study as we did other systems
aud SUNS. their own skies perpetuallv
dazzling them (Several pictures of
celebrated nebula were here intro
duced on the screeE.) Some nebula
were apparently aeglomsratIons of
gaseous matter matter If little Gensi-
ty travelling towards Il centre through
an atmosphere still rarer. Mr. Proc
tor said here that he hoI ed the pro-
posed five-fOOt equatorial might yet he
huilt for use in the clear air of Ameri-
ca. and that A!van Clark. of Cam
bridge. the best living Optician, might
i've to finish it, With such an iIstru-
ment wOndrOus revelations might lie
expected from the star depths. Speak
ing again of the neuu!a1 he said that
certainly they appeared To eXEihit
material enough for the manufacture
Of solar systems. A globe whore
diameter should be the diameter of
the earth's orbit would be Il mere
point at their distance. and they
stretched over immense areas. The
light and heat at many of the stars
was so apparently variable that they
were unfit to he the SUNS of planets
wherein life should he maintained.-
at one time th"y would furnish too
much light and heat. or at another
time too little. Kepler believed that
he solar system was the centre of the
universe, that around it was vacant
space, and then shell of stars about
seventy miles thick which caught the
wasted heat of the sun. Wright. of
Durham, and Sir William HersChel
said that our star system was one of
several. Herschel gave up this thing
afterwards. Herschel's study of the
stars had this plan to study the same
field with a gradually more Pow erful
glass. and reckon the new found stars
as farthest off. The error was in the
result of resolving all clustres into
spikr-shapcd grOui es, having one end
turned To the earth. If Herschel had
lived lac would have combined that
plan with anOtEer-!he study and
mapping of the whole heavens with 4
single small telescope. then with a
larger one, and the comparison and
combination of the different maps
rhe result of this kind OF work had
breu to show that great and small
stars were rich in the Milky Way.
There WAS i dark region between the
head of the Bull AMI the Milky Way,
aud in general rOvprty-stricken dis
trict separated the rich North from
fhe rich South. What was wanted
was IL number of laborers to study the
reaveus. Anybody could do it, and
the range of telescope power might
be from the fOur-inch refracter, which
counted 324. 600 stars, to the Ross re-
Hector, which counted mO.e than TO-
U00,0 O. |: would be hard work and
long work, but il would be worth the
pains, and it WAS the only means pos
siu of determining the architecture
of the heavens Stars wete noticed to
drift, and if we found them moving
together or under particular laws we
might compare them with our own
system. No object in nature was
| relatively more solid or unmoving than
| the stars in the heavens. The motions
| in block of granite, imperceptible as
| they were were yet relatively greater
| Yet there were signs OF drift. The
| Ple;ades and other consultations were
seen drifting towards or away from the
Milky Way. The approach of con-
| stellation Ia the earth or Its recession
could be discovered and measured by
the shortening or lengihening of the
waves of light. Huggins found that
the PleiadeS were receding at the rate
of seventeen miles se"OnT. In the
stellar system we had scheme ill.,
| finitelv more wuEdrOus and various
ami vital than we should have sup
posed. Every increase of telescope
,.uwer showed new flecks of ght OH
u darkest field of the heavens I'll e
earth seemed vast TO us. The sun
which ruled it was much vaster, ard
beg ohd the sun were bodies that
drawfcd the whole solar system with
in, igniticanre.
Mr.. Proctor ended by quoting Jean
Paul Frederick Ricfiter's account of a
trip into infinite space, in the trans
istiOn of which from the time of Pro-
f e, sor Mitchell has been household
wo.d with American hearers OF lee
cures on astronomy.