Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-08-13
AsHTABuLA OHIO, FRIDAY, AUGUST 13 1880.
GLIMPSE AT THE UNlvERsE-lssO

VI III wi Oh - 4 4 AAAA CaHA AfAADAf AfAHN's
Eds.' '7el.-The North Star-Polaris-
the beacon light to liberty for many poor
slave, is a star of the third magnitude and
lis estimated distance is little over one
hundred and fity-eight trillons miles--a
distance 50 great that II our earth should
be- hurled from It's orbit aud move over
this immense track at the rate Of a million
miles day, il would require four hundred
and thlrty-three thousand years to accom-
plish the journey 10 that distant dome in
the Northern sky. When seen under a
two thousand magnifying power, we dis
cover two vast suns standing apart more
than five hundred billions miles, and each
component many times larger than Our'
sun. The star Mizar-the elbow star IN
the dipper handle-is more splendid eyen
than Polaris, the components not more
than third the distance apart, but their
distance from us is so immeasurably great
that Il parallax has not been found to esti-
mate il. Sirius, commonly known as the
dog star, is known to have large planeta-
ry body keeping him company in later
measurmenis made by DR.. Wolaston aided
by the photometer, is estimated to be fif.
ty-seyen trillions miles distant, and four.
teen times larger than our sun.
a good threeinch relractur rightly man
aged can be made to magnify Two Thousand
] 4 IT, -
gazing purposes, aud when directed INTO
the thicker portion Of the stars, rs iutO the
Pleiades, il is wonderful to behold their
| numbers, increased to hundreds OF thou
sands, and in places 50 compacted that on
| ly here aud there crevice can be found To
admit view into the dark aud unlathom.
able regions beyond where their outlines
gradually fade as the distance is increased
till they entirely disappearin in the dark i'm.
mensily Of space.
The most careless observer in cOntem.
plating the mighty magnitude of the Solar
system, IN ranging from world to world
surveying the distance to the great Jupi
I ANlg llblll AllNlGb " bdAulll uuu bluuubi
and finally to the extreme verge where the
planet Neptune wheels its course, is still
unsatsfed and asks, what is beyond thess
limits in the unfalhonable distance? Or
the wings Of observation aud thought, b,
passes the limits Of the planetary system
crossing the abyss OF space into the far lis
tant regions beyond, to behold innumera
ble suns whose distances have puzzled as
tronumers and in all probility will contin
ne to puzzle them forever. But one IhinI
We are certain Of, they are located at
prodigious distance. A distance whicl
stuggers all belief and under which th
Imagination reels. And from analogy vi
can reasonably infer that those millions o
distant suns are surrounded by innumen,
ble families Of revolving worlds, in al
probability inhabited by untold trillinns o
intelligencies, wheeling their courses il
the depths Of space, keeping exact tim
aud step to the harmony and music of tn
universe. Their Greetings aud inter-cil
clings controlled by the all prevailing la'
of affinity or the force Of gravitation, i
which there can be no mistake, no jar, n
disorder but what that law will eventual
cure.
By aid of the telescope the field Of obse
vation is wonderfully enlarged and ever
increase Of powers carries us onward
space, to behold new suns and systems {
worlds enterely beyond our natural visiol
The conclusion is that material system
are as unlimited as space, that there is 4
limit beyond which there is no extent.
INDEX.