New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-02-08
THE LECTURE.

handed IN 10 me, althOugh c"IHut Si'' ~
great amount of time any really adequate attention.
II is relative TO the effect Of Earhs atmosphere upon
the suus beating power upon the Earth The question H.
how II happcns-or wi ether by assigning proper Ut
mosphere TO the different planets OF tine system !, "
possible 10 keep even Jupiter or Saturn OF souo VI
pther planets sufficiently warm for human Hd''i''''
il undoubtedy true that at the upper surface % '0
mosuhere it is very cOd not because l-eie - i'"i'
,oet tbore for there Is IN fat, time Moie' "' we
know that the warmth of body depends upon inc ""
ance between tie amount OF neat II Is GYMS ON a..
o,nount il is receiving. TIE question oi nov '. u
,1,s off - ouite as important the cue Ion OF no
much II gels II Is true that our a'nos ee ao'S as
49,, holding I'm the heat. II is true, unguestlonNpY
mat tbe outer planets of the system III GA ne so col"eu
with an amosu TO be made hanaDe IN ta' way
bnt the difficulty, so far understand H. res III 'he
other direct on-tat ey are TOO hot for comfort Jup
ter and saturn not reached that Old age 10 Wm'h
tho Earth has come they allea y too warm thohgh
their own internal heat 10 he suited to obaon and as
for Venus and lercury, from all We can learn ey lave
more atmospre than Earth has and for that reason
are much 100 warm. They receive more 'eat Ioln INC
sum- and at same time wear thicker Jacket 20 'ha
as matters stand, al the planets except Mars "ouu "p
near to be much hotter tan TIE Earth. As for that
planet it's atmosphere is little aier than that OF the
Earth stin think this is mostly rather u eess speeula
ton believe, as / said before, that II they nave
Inhabitants taey itted by wise Creator Tor the
spheres in witch they are to live As FIR my part,
would az lief live n the sun as anywhere else II was
fitted for tie conditions that exist tAere
TO begin my discourse upon tie subject pro CT; II
one looks out on moonless lis h. when It is utterly
dark and the heavens to lie breaking open to the
very depths the first impression is that the stars are ao
eoutely countless. Look where on viii and httie gim
merng points reach the eye; some That va can easily
see and Others nat you can hardly make out; but II
YOU will divide any particular portion OF the heavens
taking the bowl II the Dpper for instance, you Will ma
TINT YOU can without a0y great difficulty, count inc
stars and 50 OF another portion and another prlo'
and found to b. quite possible to count up All TIC
stars distinctly visible TO the naked eve seen RON
Ney-York or a place similarly situated as to latitude
the number is very great amounting perhaps 10
5000 and you add TO that LOCO moro i"r stars
that never come above horizon, whlca would DC
visible only near the Southern Pole that something
like 900 stars would Oe all that are visible TO the haAeA
eve say about. for, of course there IS an immense
difference between peoples eyessOine seeing more 'u"
others 1 suppose there are p.rlons with fairy goo
sight who would be troubled see NOR than S'ooo
or 1000: and there are others whose vision would
enable them to count 1000 or 5000; but II You
take Little opera-glas, with an object gas OF oh a"
incl and La in diameter. common els VIII Increase
the uumber fully 100000, tie number Of the Snaer
stars is so Immense a. compared TO that Of The Iarg IL
Won take large teescopethe largest at present access
BILE the one at Wa bngtonit T. estimated that he W"oIe
number visible with such an instrument runs mp 70
about the popu alton If tie United states, Or somewhere
from 30 900 900 to GOOOOOOO In al-not such an enol-
nous number a. TO he unthnkabe at all. OF course
the larger the telescopes the g'ea number t1a
will be brought view. We are not able to say what
the whole population Of the stellar 81 stem VII re; uu
compared with The immensely Of space II Is not ythDg
very immense
HOW THE STARS ARE DESIGNATED.
These stars are designated In dderen ways Most OF
the larger ones have of their own some being Of
extreme antiquity. II appears at III" majority OF the
greater have names OF Greek ana Laun origin such
As Sirius Arcturus tue tha drives the b ar and so
names that have meanings related to the constela-
tons The stars Of the second Glass; and good many OF
the first class also LARGELY ARABIC Names such as
Vega Bealguese Rgel and So Oh Almost all Of those
OF the second class have Arabic names when We come
10 the smaller stars they are generally designated by
letters and consultations These latter being groups OF
STARS most Of which Of great even Of immeno
rial autouity We find traces Of the consultations OF
tbe Zodiac a. we have them now In the earliest records
known 10 history the Lion and the Bun ana the Kan a
near in the old Zodiacs OF the Egyptians and the
Assyrians / might make lecture on the subject OF
these consultations If a literary man, but 1t
youd lie from chronological point OF view and OF no
scientific interest ALL But they give us good way Of
dstiu us ne the stars II Alpha Leonis 1t means
he star Alpha In the constellation OF the Lion, and we
know whereabouts in the sky that must De- JHSi the
same az anybody would know what ace referred TO
II said a town IN Indiana There are about hty OF
these
come TO the smaller STILL are forced to des z
nate th,m by their position In the SKY or
else by their number in somebody's catalogue. For
instance number 522s, Of the British Catalogue refer
10 mat catalogue Of stars and find number so asa 50
as being OF such magnitude; IT. Hght ascension, CORE
spending to longitude the Earth is 30 and so its dec
Hnatop eorresponding 10 latitude on the Earth, and
thattxes its place. Wewe have OF those catalogues a.
presept something like fifty sixty. Ispeak nOtby the
card exactly for DO not remember precisely, hut We
know that the number Of stars that are thus mapped
down and identihsble reach to something IKE Co.,
600 one single catalogue known as ArglaudeTs Zones
contains something like 100000, and the number Of
MARS whose place is determnedis constantly increas
ing.
We very commonly separate them into magnitude
We sneak OF stars OF the first and second mat nudes
BY that We 90 not their real size at all but SIMPLY
their degree OF brightness The stars Of hrst class OF
brightness which look larger 10 the eye-oecaue our
ewes are made So not because the stars are really
bigger-are called stars OF tie first magnitude those Of
the seco order the aud on the visible stars
being divided sx magnitudes and the numbers run
Il ing something IN this way Lave TO say about all
the way here because different - linacs dHeI so
rnuch one man Will pat star Ia the first nagl ude
while another will place II IN tue list OF secOul class
stars aud q still particular man VIII call II III the
~. or he L. ma gnude. But rally recognize
belonging the fret IN gntude aDVut ~ saiHi OF Tue
second magnitude 81 or 80 stars OF Tue ra me
40 stars the fourth magnitude 3ZI stars o. ne
ffh magnitude 600 stars ana OF me siXta ~"
nttlemore correctly, $500 and iractloh Dui az sat-
am eve, wi bring tie number mp 10 thousand more
or Inc seventh magnitude there are from l3OOO 70 a.
600 Stars and you 20 on the numbers Increase very
rapidly. Of course.
COMPARATIVE BRIGHTNESS or THE STARS.
The stars can be measured heir brightness by com
parson with each other without any great difficulty
The process OF measurene mt not begun until com
recent times Hersehel shower that sixth
ma ntude star about onehundredth part as much
uebt a. star of the first magnitude. The expert
ment by which he came TO this conclusion was TO take
a niece of paper with pin hole IN and looking through
that al IAN ern he compared 1t with first magnitude
star Alpha Lyr, aud ascerianed at what distance tho
ARTIFICIAL star would of the same brightness as the
real one. ther conparlng it with the light OF sixth