The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1882-08-10

Shining with q dull, leaden color, in
| striking contrast with the brilliant Jupiter
and the scintillating ixed stars, Saturn is
almost the last object in the sky that one
would expect to find interesting. But in
the telescope its whole aspect is changed,
and its presents a scene of marvellous
beauty. II wouldn't have believed that
there was such an object in the sky is q
remark that the owner of a telescope hears
again and again when he shows his friepds
Saturn's rings. There is nothing resembling
them in the whole visible universe. In
truth, Saturn's rings have been a puzzle to
the astronomers. Mathematician have
figured themselves into the belief that il is
a physical impossibility for those rings to
exist. Yet the rings are there. Theory
after theory has been invented TO account
for them, yet the laws oftheir being cannot
be said to be understood. When in 1850
Prof Bond discovered the wonderful Grape
or gauze ring inside of the others-which
is semi-transparent, so that the body of
planet may be seen through it-there was
a great oyerturning of old theories. The
notion that the rings were solid was aban-
doned. Some said they were liquid
Finally it was decided that they were com
posed of a vast multitude of tiny satellites,
travelling around the planet close together
and in the same PLAN. If there were in
habitants like us on these little worlds,
they might knock each others worlds 10
pieces with hundred-ton gum Whether
any of the theories about Saturn's rings
IS correct, nobody knows, but my
body with n three-inch telescope can see
the rings, graceful and perfect in outline.
bright as polished gold, and marked with
delicate lines and shadings. The two main
rings together are about 10000 miles broad,
and only so miles-perhaps less-thick.
Huygens in 1859 had to makea telescope
100 feet long, after what was called the
aerial pattern, with the object glass hung
up on n tall pole, before he could make out
what the rings were, which our modern
achromntics show so easily. Calico, who
studied them for years, never found out
hat they were rings. He made n picture
of them, as they looked in his telescope,
like two little globes on each side ola larger
globe. After a while they grew dim, and
presently he could see them no longer. The
thin edge of the rings was turned toward
the earth as happens once in every fifteen
years. Calico was in despair. He began
to think that those who had lRghed at
his discoveries were right, n that his
telescope had really been deserving him all
the time. He knew the old myth about
Saturn's d~evouring his children, and he
questioned whether the smaller planets
that he had seen had not been swallowed
up by the large one. The rings were rep
resented in all sorts of queer shapes by
subsequent observers, but nobody seems
to nave thought that they were rings until
Huygens found it out, and even then his
discovery was learnedly disputed by those
who had less powerful telescopes.
Saturn is even more generously supplied
with moons than Jupiter, having eight.
With a good three and a half or four inch
telescope, in good weather, five of these
moons can be seen. The three smaller ones
testthe power of the largest telescope.
Among the most attractive features of
Saturn are the various shades of color ex-
hibited on the ball and the rings, and the
shadows that they cast upon one another
The eye requires a few evenings practice
to be able TO discern these features readily.
Then the planet and the rings, with the
little moons grouped about them, appear
in the telescope with a wonderful stere"'
scopic efiect.-Ne10 York SUI