The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-09-19
The Planet Vulcan.

AFTER LWeHty years VI ulSpuCes cOlu-
plicated by many doubtful and conflict
ing observations, the intra- Mercurial
planet discovered by the Partisan ply
sician, Lescarbault, will probably now
have to be admitted to full standing
among the planets.
Ever since lie Verrier completed his
demonstration of the existence of dis
turbing body somewhere between
Mercury and the sun, not few as
tronomers have been convinced that
only favorable opportunity was nec-
essary to verify by sight the evidence
of mathematics.
Among these was Prof. Watson,
whose confidence was so strong that he
went to Colorado determined to make
the search for Vulcan his chief bust
ness. He said to a townsman on his
return: Il was satisfied that there
was a planet within the orbit of Mer-
curry, just'as l am satisfied that there is
one outside the orbit of Neptune. The
perturbations of those planets, and
some other phenomena, cannot be ex-
planned on any other hypothesis. So
when went there l fixed on my plan
and stuck to it. determined to sweep
south of the sun, and to keep within a
small space. We had but three and
one half minutes, and the time was too
short to try to get over too great a
space. l meant to search that much
thoroughly, and so reduce the amount
for future astronomers should l not
succeed. It was on the fifth sweep that
l saw the object"
In his report to Rear Admiral Rod
gers, Superintendent of the United
States Naval Observatory, Prof. Wat
son says: II have the honor to report
that at the time of totality I observed q
star of the four and o half magnitude
in r. A. Oh. 26m. dec. Is deg. north,
which is, feel convinced, an intra-
Mercurial planet. / observed with q
power of forty-five, and did not have
time to change the power so as to en-
large the disk. There is no known star
in the position observed, ahd l did not
see any elongation, such as ought to
exist in the case of q comet very near
the sun. will hereafter report to you
fully in regard to observations made.
The appearance of the object observed
was that of ruddy star of the four
and half magnitude. The method
which adopted prevents the possibil-
ity of error from wrong circle readings;
beside l had memorized the Washing
ton chart of the region, and no such
star was marked thereon. Bycompar-
ison with the neighboring stars on Ar
gelander's scale, the magnitude of the
planet would be the fifth, although my
direct estimate at the time of the obser-
walton was four and half. as stated. {"
Speaking of the discovery, the En-
glish astronomer, MIR. Lockyer, said
that he did not look for Vulcan and did
not see it, though he believed in Le
Verrier's prohecy that it would De
found at some time. He added: We
may rely upon Prof. Watson's state
ment that it is not comet, ana 1t IS
certainly not star, therefore it must
be y planet, and, from its position, an
intra- Mercurial one." gig
Much to Prof. WatsOn's delight, his
discovery was in a measure confirmed
by that of Mr.. Lewis Swift, of Roches-
ter, who was at a neighboring station.
Mr.. Swift's observation seems to have
been, in a sense, accidental, yet there
is no reason to question its scientific
value. In giving an account of bis dis