The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-13
THR SUN.


ment- We all know that the amount of heat
from the sun seems much less In winter than in
summer, (although the sun is 1,598,G00 miles
nearer us in winter than it is in sunmert This
is accounted for mainly by the sun being so far
south in winter, making its rays fall very slant
ing on our part Of the earth, so that the same
amount Of rays and heat is spread over much
greater suface Thesesiantmg rays also en-
counter more atmosphere which absorbs heat,
leaving less to stFiks and warm the earth. If
the supply Of heat is nearly unfform-the same
at all times and it probably is, then there must
be local causes for the sudden changes Of tenn
perature which so eften occur; and especially for
the hot weather of the current September.
What these causes are is but partly
known. Fha uaevenuess Of the land
the proximity Of the sea- the dry or wet eondi
tion Of the air, ETC., as we'll as the mysterious
working of electricity. would seem to modify, or
divert, to a considerable extent, nearly
steady supply of solar heat. The very dry con-
dition Of the air which now prevails undoubt
edly favors the natural supply Of heat from the
sun by increase Of temperatures, especially in
connection with. sGutherly winds. "A smart
breeze from the north would cool the air. and
tend to condense into rain the small amount of
moisture which vet remains; and evaporation
would then stiM further cool the air; pFodueing
conditions of moist and colder temperature; and
with declining sun, the approach of winter
There is still an uncertainty oe few hundred
Thousand miles, in the sums distance from the
earth The late transitsl Of Venus, which were
SO much depended on for this element. of astron-
omy, have not vet been thoroughly discussed and
worked out, ZOE are they likely to be for some
years to come. But enough has been learned
T.
the sun is two or three million miles nearer than
the old ninety FIVE million result Of the transits
OF Venus observed I'M I76d and E69
Instruments are now more perfect and methods
OF observation more exact than were possible l20
years ago 1t now seems likely that the mean
distance Of the sun is near 90, 500 600 miles On
account of the eccentrieity (elliptic variation
from true circleb Of the earths orbit, the suns
distance varies 5000 900 miles in. the course of
six months, making it nearest to us, (which ocs
ours at New Year 81 about $1,000 00G miles and
its furthRst (July ~ 81, 0Q0, COO Those wh0haye
travelled in swiftrunniug cars thirty miles an
hour for thirty hours think they have gone
long distance-and they have. BUT to go once
around the earth they mnst travel, at the same
rate, twenty eight times as lDng-thirty five
days And to make a. distance equal to that of
the sun from the earth would require 800 years,
about ten times the common age Of man Con-
sidering this vast distance in connection withthe
sums apparent diameter of 80 little more than
half OF one degree&s we soon comprehend thatits
size must be Very great Calculations shows; its
diameter to be S50,090 miles and circumference
two and two thirds millions So it would take
thirty-Tnile train ten years to make one cir
cult of the sun. OF the many millions of
square miles which make up. the solar surface
every one throws off it's due amounted light and
heat. Who wonders. then, that we have hot
weather when the sun is nearly overhead and
all things favorable to his shining DOWN upon us2
In calculating the eomparative size of the sun
and earth we find that the greaA lHminary is
LIST, 600 times larger than our globes but it is
only 314, 0e9 times heavier showing that, bulk
for bulk, the sum is nearly four times hgtter
than the eaEth--i e., q part of the sun of equal
size with the earth would be only onerfOurth as
heavy as the eafth-nnt quite, one and oneHhalf
times as heavy as wateP;. the earth being FIVE
and two thirds times heavier than water Then
comparing weight ard size OF each, the specific
gravity of the sum comes out twenty-seNen times
greater than that of the earth, so that am er6i-
nary man weala weigh about 1000 pounds on
the sum- And if the sun were composed Of the
same material same densitY-as the earth the
mans weight would be nearly 16000 pounds
The sun is undoubtedly fixed star to
the distant parts of creation, Appearing
smaller and DINNER from greater dis
tanees, The planet Neptune (flrthest one
from the sun yet foundl IS near when conn
pared with the fixed stars; and still it is thirty
times further than the earth. So the sun FROM
there would appear only one thiFtieth Of its di-
ameter from here and the actual size nine hum
dr6u U11eS Less. Inc IlghG and neat WOULD also
be nine hundred times less than here.
Spots on the sun were occasionally seen long
before the invention of the telescope. The first
record that, / find is that of Adelmas, who OBJ
served black spot on the sun" March I, 807,
The next by Ayerroes, in 1I6L Another by
Hakluyt, in 1beD-abosrt twenty years before
Galileo made his first telescope. Himself,
Scheiner, Fabricius and others soon observed a
number of solar spots with their telescopes.
Scheiner took occasion to report what he had
seen to his superior In the Jesuit Church, and
received this reply: $50, my son, tranauilize
yourself; be assured that what you take for spots
in the sun is the fault of the glasses or of your
own eyes The purity of the suns face was an
article of faith m the Roman Church. and the
observer of real sun spots. was not allowed to
publish his observations. which, though he did
anonymously. The building up of the great
tower of science was done through great
difficulty, as well as the settling of new
countries. Spots on the sun were often.
observed mora than 200 years before their PEI
riodical recurrence was established And it was
only after thirty years. Of persistent observation
that the devoted astronomer, Pref. Sehwabe,
convinced mankind that spots on the sun disapr
peared for time, and then broke out in great
numbers about every eleven years, or at least an
average period Of this length. This inveterate,
observer. of Dessau, in Germany, examined the
sun pretty nearly 800 times In each year during
the long period OF forty two years, ending with
1868.
My own observations with the six foot tele-
scope were begun in March, I867--a time Of
minimum, when no spots were visible. They
began to appear IN few weeks, and increased
rapidly, coming TO maximum in August 1870.
when nearly I006 spots were visible on one half
the whole surface of the sun. They are gener-
ally arranged In clusters on gaAups, and on this
occasion belt Of dense groups extended across
the sun from east to west After this they
slowly decreased IN Numbers. and In March, 1873
disappeared entirely, showing another mini
mum, In eleven years after the preceding