The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1886-03-24
NO. Is.
Wonders of the Sky.

VISIT TO THE NAVAL OBSERVATORY AT
WASHINGTON - WHAT GEN. TOMBSTONE
JONES SAW THERE-sATURN, HIS RINGS
AND SATELLITES; TIE NEBULE IN ORION;
THE pLE1ADEs A HANDFUL OF DIAMONDS;
THE MOON A GREAT sNoW-F1ELD.
Gen. Johnstone Jones, son of Col.
C. Jones, of York County, recently
visited the Naval Observatory at
Washington, and upon his return
home wrote his father an interesting
letter descriptive of what he saw
there. We have been permitted to
make the following extracts from the
letter;
Remembering your suggestion as
to looking at Saturn through the great
telescope, I procured a letter Of intro
duction to Commodore Belknap from
his son-in-law DR.. Westray Battle,
who resides here, and called at the
Naval Observatory. The Commodore
received me kindly, and invited me to
look through the telescope the first
fair night. The night Of February
9th was tolerably fair, and l visited
the Observatory, and in company With
the Commodore and his wife called
upon Professor Hall, who has charge
Of the great instrument. I saw Sat
urn, his rings and satellites; the
nebulae in Orion; Sirius; the Moon;
the Pleiades, and the star Aldebaran.
OF all these eight Saturn was the
grandest and most beautiful; but the
nebula in Orion the most sublime
and impressive.
!" Saturn appeared a perfectly round,
smooth bali, with well defined edges,
as yellow as gold, and without scin-
tillation. The sphere was encircled
by two bright, fat rings OF the sam@
color as the planet, separated by
dark line, supposed to be empty space
between them. All along the interior
edge of the inside ring was a cloudy
or yaporous appearance. The rings
had clear-cut edges and seemed to be
solid bodies. In the black space sur
rounding these luminous bodies shone
the eight satellites-each brilliant
star-a diamond point of clear, steady,
silvery-white light-at unequal dis
tances from the rings. It appeared
TO be about the size Of the full moon.
The wonder of the spectacle is great
ly increased when we reflect that 1t Is
100 millions of miles distant from the
earth, or $50 millions from the sun,
and that it is more than fifty times as
large as the earth. Compared to this
ringed-wonder of the skies our planet
is small, commonplace and inslgnlh-
cant.
The Pleiades under the power OF
the telescope spread out into about
thirty beautiful stars. They seemed
a handful of diamonds strewn on the
sky, without order or system.
Sirius, the largest Of the fixed stars,
if not the mean est, was brilliant beyond
description. It scintillated violently,
blindingly, flashing out reddish,
yellowish light
The Moon seemed great snow
field, with the crater, the mountains,
and the shadows Of the mountains all
plainly visible. These shadows, made
by the distant sun, filed me with q
feeling of indescribable awe. l had
always thought the moon appeared
dark under the telescope, but the only
dark spots about it are the shadows
of the mountains on the plains and
valleys.
The most sublime spectacle is the
nebulee in Orion. It is faint, whitish
cloud, shaped like a ploughshare. In
the centre are four brilliant stars
called the T1apeziesna-fanked by two
stars that appear to be in the cloud
veiled, as it were. Whether they are
in this nebulous matter, or on the
other side of it, seen though 1t as
through veil, is an unsolved and most
puzzling question. OF below the
point, which juts out into the blaek,
empty space, appear TWO beautiful
stars, with no nebulous matter around
them. This field Of cloud must be
many millions Of miles in extent, and
the stars each a great sun, the centre
of some mighty solar system, perhaps.
At this immense distance Saturn
would not be seen at ali, even with
the greatest telescope; our own sun
would appear but small point OF
lieht-size of q star as it appears to
the naked eye. This nebul@ and the
Trapezium cannot be seen with the
naked eye. When I meet you again
7 will tell YOU more of these wonders
Of the sky. The subject is one all
unfamiliar to my vocabulary.