The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-17

or thickly distributed. They are only in
convenient IN that they obscure SO much
light. They do not interfere with the OBJ
ServatiOnsn
Chow thick must that 40-inch lens be In
order to secure the best resultsW
Not much thicker than the Lick lens.
That is about two and one-half inches
through the center. 1t depends upon the
length of the focus. If short focus is de-
sired, the lens must be thicker. / think the
best results can be obtained through long
focus. So | make my lenses thin and my
tubes long,
"Would 40-inch lens require a much
longer tube than the 36-inch"
THE same proportionate increase in
length would be required as in thickness.
The Lick telescope is about IS feet long. and
40-inch lens would require an additional
length of from Is to Is feet"
Would not the refraction Of light inter
fere with the observationsp
mot to any appreciable amount. The
scientists shook their heads when the Lick
telescope was planned, and said it would be
impossible to secure good results with such
large lens. They have seen that their fears
were groundless. Not only have the obser
vations been good, but they have exceeded
anything that astronomers have dreamed
OF. 1t has brought into view countless
millions of stars that were not reached by
OIuludIJ UeltSCODtS, anu HIS ISN6ilSh iSN
facts in regard to known stars and planets.
Now, my idea is that larger telescope will
go just as far ahead of the Lick telescope
as that is in advance of the others. know
that larger ones will be made, and | expect
to make them"
"Of course a larger telescope would cost
a good deal more than that at the Lick Oh
servatory, would it notp' was the reporters
query.
Naturally it would be much more ex
pensive, on account of the greater risk.
The Lick telescope cost little more than
100000, and the lenses alone cost more than
$57, 900. You see they are expensive pieces
OF glass. Why, it st over $4,000 to carry
that big lens from Boston to California. A
special sleeping car was chartered, the lens
was carefully placed ia the center, so as to
receive as lutte jouncing as possible, and
twelve persons guarde it. TIE expenses of
car and cooks and the fares of the twelve
persons who went with it aggregated more
than $4,000"
About how much would 40-inch tele-
scope costY'
''Should say, at a rough guess, that it
would cost between 800, 900 and $780, 600"
"How about that 5-foot lens! How much
would it cost to mount such oneW
"a million would be "a small figure, was
Mr.. Clark's laughing response II don't ex-
pect to get an order for a telescope of that
size right away, out [ would fill it if it
came. Speaking of a milliondollar telescope
reminds me of a movement started several
years ago by a wealthy New Yorker to Sc
cure a fund of $1,000,000 for the purpose Of
building great telescope to startle the
world. He wrote me several letters and Sc
cured plans, etc. That was the last ever
heard of it. guess he found it hard work
to raise that amount of money.
sit was his plan to have the telescope
mounted in the east That wouldn't be
wise, even il the telescope was already
mounted and ready for use. The western
slope of the country is much better adapted
to astronomical re ,earches than the eastern.
The air is so much clearer and purer that
the results are much more satisfactory than
in the east. | don't know the reason there
of, but | know it is So Mount Hamilton,
on which the Lick telescope is located, is
not as high as Mount Washington. But
when l was there | could clearly see noun
tain peaks that were $50 miles away; see
them with the naked eye, too. Now, at
Mount Washington it is almost impossible
to see Portland, which is, | believe, only
little more than sixty miles distant. Then
when | looked through the telescope | was
simply dumbfounded at the wonderful reve-
latiOns | took photograph of Orion land
Mr.. Clark produc d it,. That is the best
photogr aph ever saw was his enthusiastic
exclamation"
The reporter saw only a smoky-looking
square of glass thickly dotted with spots,
some large and some small. By holding it
overhead with the sky as background, the
reporter saw myriads of stars of all de-
grees, with Orion foremost in the group.
The stars were remarkable for their ab
sence; in other words, the clean spots
showed that the rays from a star had erased
the chemical and registered its presence in
the sky. Those dots overlapped each other
and, in fact. left only minute patches of
chemical.
Hereafter all our telescopes will be made
with the Photographic lens" continued Mr..
G ark; 'then it will be possible to record
accurately any observations 1t only adds
a trifie to the expense, and secures much
more satisfactory result"