Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-06-24
A nip in the MILKY way.

moon has set on one Of these clear June even
ings upon lifting his eyes to the starry heavens,
will be struck with the brilliant appearance of
the Milky Way, flung like q light scarf of silver
gauze across the bosom of the night, ana
gemmed at intervals with splendid stars and
the gods he must go who would behold the
richest star mines OF the visible universe, in
years without exhausting their wonders. To
one who has never seen the Milky Way except
as its presents itself to the naked eye glimpse
of its radiant architecture with the aid OF q
good telescope is a most surprising and graft
lying revelation. Nobody who once beholds
those clouds, streams and clusters of suns. in
space with a golden glow, can never shake off
the charm from his mind. Thenceforth the
universe has new meaning for him; he feels
the walls OF being moving away and widening
out beyond his reach on every side. The sublime
spectacle will haunt his memory and inspire
his thoughts as long as he lives.
AT this season the brilliant star Vega in the
constellation of the Tyre, is almost in the zenith
at midnight. 1t may be recognized by means
little equilateral triangle with Vega. This is a
good starting point for q telescope excursion TO
the Milky Way. Vega itself is worth stopping
moment to look at. Even the observer with
the naked eye will be likely to look back at
Vega many times after he has once recognized
b beauty and brightness an 10 Will
look alike, as he had supposed. 1t requires but
a minutes inspection to perceive that Vega is
its light has brilliant blue tint that invariably
calls forth exclamations of admiration from
those who see 1t for the first time. A good glass
shows that the background of the heavens all
around Vega is strewn with minute stars many
of which can only be seen by glimpses at inter-
walls through the binding light that surrounds
Is unsteady. Then they come out for a moment
with piercing distinctnesS, no bigger than
1T out tae Tee
ceaseless flashing and scintillatng of Vega,
flling the whole field OF the telescope with the
appearance Of these starry bubbles Which seem
to be constantly dancing and breaking upon
the flood of radiance, make peculiarly lively
ana fascinating spectacle.
Hanging below Vega to the eastward, and
reaching around into the northwest on one hand
and down to the southern horizon on the other,
scope drop downward, with his eye kept con-
stantly at the ocular, the observer will become
aware OF his approach to the Galaxy by the
increasing number of stars. Thicker and
thicker they throng in the black sky, until their
light becomes SO mingled that the heavens
Lock . though they were filed with clouds Of
does not cover patch Of sky as large as q
cent held ut arms length, and yet in that little
as soon think of trying to count the bees in a
nying swarm as OF attempting to number
them. Each is perfectly distinct, but their
minuteness is astonishing They are micro
scopic stars. Every tiny twinkler has its little
rays, and Is Il complete star in appearance, but
seems, with all its tWinklings, not to cover q
multitude OF scintilating points, sending tiny
rays of light into the eye from all parts of the
telescope field, sometimes produces a very
curious ELECT npOn the sense of sight. The eye
seems to be tickled by the little beams that
pour into it criss-cross from ali directions. If
every glittering particle in a cloud of diamond
dust floating in the air could be set to rotating
swiftly, SO as to flash forth an unceasing stream
Oh light, the appearances would not be unlike
that ofa telescope field in the richer parts OF
the Milky Way. When the telescope is moved
rapidly over these star fields the background of
the sky seems TO be vcined with lines of fire,
streaks of light, and u large star now and then
dashes, streaming like u meteor, across the
field, startling the beholder with it's blaze.
Yet the mutitudeS of stars in the Galaxy do
not appear to have been scattered at random
One Of the most interesting and charming fea-
lures Of the view Is the appearance of design in
In pairs, triples and sets of other numbers;
sometimes long streams of stars will be SEEM
eNeTy member .,, OF the set keeping its place like
ton of geometrical figures is very apparent
and occasionally the form and arrangement of
these figures are SO beautiful and striking that
the observer instinctivey utters an eXclama-
ton OF wonder and admiration. It is as if Gods
children had been at play in those distant
starry starry neids, using suns to mark the goals and
boundaries of their game
The observer Is delighted upon close inspec-
tion 10 find that he can detect marked differ
ences Of color in the stars of the Galaxy The
great majority OF them are white or yellow but
scattered about are red, orange, blue, lilac and
other colored stars, which are often SO grouped
with their white companions as to heighten the
effect of the geOmetrical figures before describ-
ed. The difference in size and brilliancy of the
stars also adds greatly to the beauty of the
scene, and frequently one or more stars of
larger size will be found in the center of a
swarm of little ones, or otherwise SO distributed
among them as to convey the impression that
they are the leaders OF these starry hosts.
Even to the naked eye the Milky Way pre-.
sents remarkable compleXity of structure
being very irregular In outline, and varying in
brilliancy in different regions. In that part of
The Galaxy lying just east of Vega a singular
gap appears in the center of the stream reach
nus, and running toward the south until the
Milky Way breaks up into a congeries of shin
ing clouds. In the telescope this intricate or
ganlZatl0n OF the galactic universe Is seen to be
carried out in the utmost detail. From regions
where the thickly crowded suns run up toward
the s, center OF the groups and clusters into per
telescope will carry the eye across compare
lively barren tracts, and now and then over
star can be seen. That broken portion of the
Milky Way lying south of Vega, and
streaming haht through to the horizon between
RUS and scorpio is particularly rich in
telescope should be swept from side to side Of
the Galaxy in order to pick them up. There
they will be seen in every variety, from swarms
whose Individual members can be counted up
to condensed "a iobular clusters, which, with
frosted silver, whose surfaces seem alive with
twinkling light, the mass of stars composing
them being separable only by the higher pow
ers of the telescope. One of these Wonderful
clusters in the constellation OF Antinous resem-
bles, when seen in small telescope, an out
spread fan of silver. With larger glasses it is
resolved into cluster of innumerable stars,
one much brighter than the others being sit
uated in the pivot of the fan.
One OF the most astonishing discoveries of
astronomy is that all the stars are in motion in
various directions, though their distance Is so
great that We can perceive this motion only by
means OF the most delicate measurements
And in many cases groups OF stars are found
to be moving together in one direction while
rection. So the great procession of suns that
cOmpOSes the Galaxy Is made up of innumera-
BILE bright companies, each marching under its
own giittering banners, and so moving as to
evOlutiOns in the wonderful pageant of the
skies. Our own sun, carrying the earth and
his other planets with him, is also q wanderer.
4 d is apparently flying to join the multitude
heavens where Vega, unquestionably much
greater sun than ours, shines supereminent.
----->0>-
PATHS Bad Brother,
New York Letter in Albany Evening Journal
certain wine shop in Sd avenue, near 18th
street, is frequented almost exclusively by
Italian singers and musicians. 1 dropped in
there the other evening for glass of chianti
and while slipping it saw a shabbily-dressed
man enter. After glance around the place he
dropped into q chair with the familiar air of one
accustomed to this resort. "That chap" said
The Barber Of Seville" He ought to- was as
the reply, ''for that's the part he used to sing.
Don't you know him? He is Adelini PATHS
brother" ''Pattis brother! Does she recognize
tainly she does; though am told that some
times, when he goes to Windsor to call on her the