Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1888-12-28
ORIGIN OF ASTRONOMY.
Older Than tho First Records of any =
mountaineering Data.

Older Than tho First Records of any Me-
mountaineering Data.
When did astronomy have its begin.
bings on the carth1 There have been
many learned attempts to answer this
question. They all have led to the con-
clusicn that long before the historic
periol there was q large common stock
Of krowledge; so large. in fact. that one
distinguished writer finds it simplest to
ascrile tho origin Of astronomy to the
teaching Of an Extinct race: Go pcuple
ancicn qui nous n tout appris-exccpte
SON nom ct son existence" his comment
tator adds.
Astronomy is older than the first re.
cords OF any nation. In order that the
records might exist. it was first necessary
to divide tho years and times by ns;ro-
nomical observations. On the other
hand, believe tho travellers of today
have found no tribe so degraded MS to DO
without somo knowledge of tho sort
1t is extremely doubtful IL animals no
tice special celestial bodies. Birds seem
To be inspired by the approach of day and
not by the actual presence of the sun. It
Is n question whether dogs ebay the
moon or only tho moons light. A
friend maintains that her King Charlcs
spaniel watched the progress Of nm oc~
sultation of Venus by tho crescent moon
with tho most vivid interest. This is tho
only case which have been ablo TO COL
lect in which the attention of animals
has been even supposed to have been held
by celestial phenomenon. The actions
of tho most ignorant savages during to-
tai solar eclipse. compared with those Of
animals, throw much light on tho qucs-
fir,, NJ ,x.1,o 10, r.
ligence the attention begins 10 he directed
to extra terrestrial occurrences. The saw
ages are appalled, by the disappea, ance
of the sun itself, while animals seem to
BIO concerned with the advent OF dark.
ness simply.
am told that the Eskimos of Smiths
sound have names for n score or more OF
stars. and that their long slcdge Jour
ncys are safely made by tho guidance OF
these stars alone. have myself seen
Polynesian islander embark on n CANOE,
without compass IA chart, bound for nn
island three days sail distant His
course would need to he so accurately
laid that Mt tho end of his three DAYS he
should find himself within four or five
miles of his haven; If lie passed the low
coral island ut greater distance. Il could
not DC seen from his frail craft. There
can DO little doubt but that he used tho
sun by day and the stars by night to
hold his course direct
There must have been centuries during
which such knowledge was passed from
man to man by word of mouth. woven
into tales and learned ns n part of tho
lore of the sailor, the hunter or the tiller
of tho'soil. No one can say how carly
this knowledge of the sky was nut into
the formal shape of maps, globes or ca,a-
logues. Eudoxus is said to have con-
structcd celestial globc Il. G. 500.
Globes would naturally precctle maps,
and maps mere lists or catalogues.
Tho prototype Of all siderenl catalogues
Ia the Almngest of Plolemy "a. d. 15O),
which includes not only the observations
of Ptolcmy, but those of tho great Hip
parchus CB. g. 1917. 1t contains the
description of LOOP stars, their positions
and their brightness. Here we meet for
the first time the name magnitude Of a
star. Ptolemy divides all tho stars into
magnitudes-d degrees of brightness.
Sirius, Capella, arc of tho first mngni-
tudc; the faintest stars visible 10 the eve
aro of the sixth. But Ptolemy has Cono
Further, and divides each magnitude into
three parts. The moderns divide each
class into ten parts, that is, deci-1lly.-
Edward S. Holden in The Century.