Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1881-06-18
SOME ASTRONOMICAL oBsERvA-
TIONS.
LEXINGTON, June IA, 1881

LEXINGTON, June IA, 1881.
EDITOR INTELLIaENcER:-
ing the interest your paper has
always taken in the welfare of La
ayette county. and the advancement
and wellbeing of her good citizens,
1 felt lmpelled to transcribe the fol-
lowing from letter just received
from my son. who Is away attending
college, and If you thought proper
to publish it.
1t gives a short description of
trip the astronomy class Of "Central
College," lately made to Morrison
Observatory, and what they saw of
the "Spacious armament on high"
Would to God that more of the
wealthy men and women of the land
would follow the noble example Of
Miss Morrison and expend a portion
of their wealth in building observato-
ries or establishing colleges and in
stitutions Of learning, by means of
which their fellow men might acquire
that knowledge that enables them to
look out upon creations wide ex-
panse, and learn to adore that God
who made aud uphelds all things by
the right hand of His power. But
to the letter.
1--WE left Fayette about six o'clock
d. M, and after rapid drive of
twelve miles over one of the hilliest
parts of Howard county we reached
Morrison observatory. There we
found Prof. Carr w. Pritchett, q man
too we'll known to need any intro
ductisn, waiting to receive US. Under
the friendly guidance of his son,
"Little Carr" and a bulls eye lantern
We found our way up into the tower,
where the large telescope is situated.
The distinctive object of our visit
was to see the neon, and Pref. p.
anticipating this had the instrument
ready set. To one who had never
seen q large telescope before this
simply appeared immense. and indeed
it is NO baby by any means. Its focal
length is seventeen feet, aperture
twelve and one fourth inches, and
magnifying power varies from fifty to
eight hundred times. In the first
place. under the direction Of Prof
P, we took our seat on high perch,
aud applied our right optic to the
eye-piece as he, commencing at the
lower horn, passed the instrument
slowly over the whole surface. The
effect was almost magical; what be-
fsre had appeared pale plain sur
face now became as highly barnished
silver under strong light. with deep
craters and high ridges scattered
lever its surface. Some Of these era
ters, the astronomer informed US
were several miles deep and some o
the mountains several miles high. IL
enc of the deepest craters we observ
cd that while one side was perfectly
illuminated the other was az black a
midnight. The line of darkness wa
perfectly defined, no gradual shading
of, but q sudden and complet,
change. This fact proves almos
conclusively that the moon has NJ
a:mosphere, for if it had there W woulf
be refraction, and the change from
darkness to light gradual instead o
sudden. 1t would be next 10 impos
sible to give a description of ths
whole, and we know of no better
way to give our impression Of 1t thar
by comparison. 1t reminded us of {
large mortar bed, on which the sui
was pouring his brightest rays, ant
into which the small boy had beel
pouring rocks and pebbles. One
follow compared it to a vessel O.
plaster of paris, into which it had
rained. After we had all taken 8
good look at Luna Prof. P. volun.
teered to show us some stars, and
first directed the instrument on the
stsr Gamma Leonis. This is one Of
the double, binary stars, i. e., it is
composed Of two elements, one OF
which revolves around the other. The
distance between the elements in thit
instance is about two and one-half
minutes. Nert we took a gaze al
Uranus, the only :one of the planets
to be seen. He is situated at dis
tance Of only 1928 million miles, and
therefore, presented a well defined
green disc of four minutes in diane.
ter. Then he showed US one of the
prettiest sights of evening - tht
Nebula. situated between the stars
Eta and Theta Hercules. Te teles.
cope Of small power thisEpresent'
simply q milky spot, but under .
magnifYing power of 275 1t is resolv
ed into numberless beautiful stars
The sight was really grand. Mex
We observed the very remarkabl,
star, Epsilon Lyrae. To q person o
very strong eyesight it appear'
double even. to the naked eye, bu
under the telescope each elemen,
becomes double, and between then
are scattered some ten or twelv,
smaller stars. Beside these we saw
the stars Alpha Lyrae, Alpha Her
culis and the Ring Nebula in Lyra
which preserves its nebulous appear
snce even under q power of 275. Ii
addition to the large telescope thez
have one of seven feet in length ant
six inch aperture attached to tn,
transit instrument. This instrumen
itself is a very fine and interestlnI
one, but want of time forbids a des
cription. Then they have what i
called the "Comet Seeker" smslle
fellow which can be set on tripod i,
any part of the yard and turned t,
any part of the heavens without th
trouble of moving the dome. AL
together Morrison Observatory i
well worth visit from any one.
has emma IN ho nf oous;6 o,oh1o 49,.