Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-13
THE OUTER UNIVERSE.
Sounding the Depths of Space With I
Lick TelescODe.

From the New York Sun.
The most surprising discoveries with the
Lick telescope during the first year of its use
! have been beyond the boundaries of the solar
| system and among the stellar swarms and neb-
| ular aggregations of the outer universe. The
| reason may be, not that there remains nothing
new to be discerned in the sun and his family,
but that either the powers of the great glass or
the atmospheric conditions on Mount ,Hamil-
ton are better suited to sidereal than to planet
airy observation. This is rendered the more
| probable by the fact that while the Lick OBJ
| servers have been able to see Schiaparellis
| canals on Mars, or some Of them, and so to
confirm his observations. yet they have not
perceived all the details which the Italian
astronomer has described and drawn with too
much precision to admit Of the superstition
that he has been misled by any optical illusion.
so, too, their observations of Jupiter have not
yet added materially to our knowledge respect
ing the wonderfully colored and cloud-streaked
disk of the greatest Of the planets 1t must be
said, however, that
THE LUNAR PHOTOGRAPHS
made with the Lick telescope are the best that
have ever been taken of the mountainous and
distorted surface of our satellite. What the
monster telescope could do in the way of solv-
ing the mysteries of the sun cannot yet be told
Tor two reasons; we are now at the minimum
period of sun spots. and the observers are not
disposed to risk injury to the great lens, since
1t is feared that the direct rays of the might
cause molecular changes in the constitution of
the glass, and they wish to become satisfied
| that no such danger exists before imperiling
| 80 precious an instrument of science. But
| among the stars and nebule, we have re-
marked, the superiority of the giant telescope
to all its predecessors has been demonstrated
We have heretofore described and commented
upon its achievements, under Prof Holdens
management, in the discovery of new and
WONDERFUL FORMS OF NEBULR;
| and the vistas that it has opened and is about
to open up in the stellar regions are of equal
interest. Just how many stars the Lick tele-
scope can reveal is matter of estimation, for
it would be physically impossible to count
them. Certainly the number cannot be less
than rs, 900 900, and probably not less than 1OO-
0OO,0 900. 1t is capable of showing at least twice
| as many stars as the big Washington telescope
In certain regions of the sky the observer can
see at one view, within the minute circle in
cluded in the telescope field, many times more
stars than are visible to the naked eve in the
whole heavens. But the most signif-
cant thing of all is the appearance
of the Milky Way as seen from Mount
Hamilton. Probably every amateur astron-
omer, gazing through his three or four inch
telescope at that marvellous procession of dis
tant suns, and perceiving that beyond those
which the telescope has revealed were others
which he could not see, but whose presence
was manifested by the soft glow of light form
ing background to the golden multitude of
visible stars, has wished for a larger telescope,
that his vision might embrace the whole height
and breadth and depth of the starry creation
And, no matter how large his telescope. every
astronomer has at times felt the same desire,
and strained his eyes in vain to catch still
feebler and more
DISTANT eLIMMERINGs OUT OF THE DEPTHS.
Tn haSa 10
of the visible creation had been reached gaps
have been found in the galaxy through which
only the blackness of outer space appeared.
Yet the end has not been found even with the
Lick telescope. While it has brought into view
uncounted thousands of stars unseen before In
the Milky Way, it has not touched bottom; be-
yOnd its utmost reach the observers know from
the still unresolved luminosity of the remoter
armament, other solar multitudes are shining,
which await the application of yet mightier tel
escopic powers in order to be disclosed to our
eyes as separate suns.
But this appearance of fathomless depth,
which the starry universe presents in certain
directions, does not, in the light of recent dis
coveries. necessarily imply that the faintest
stars are the most remote. Very likely where
stratum after stratum of stars is
REVEALED IN THE MILKY WAY
by the successful application of higher and
higher optical powers, the appearance of in
creasing remoteness represents. practically,
the actual fact; and the stars which REQUIRE
the use of the largest telescopes in order to be
seen are really the most distant But that this
is not always so is proved by the fact that many
small stars are known to be nearer to US than
some of their brilliant neighbors The nearest
star in the northern armament is a minute
twinkler in the constellation of Cygnus barely
visible TO the naked eve. and so Insignificant in
appearance that probably not one person in ten
thousand has ever even seen this next neighbor
OF our sun. In the same quarter of the heav-
ems shines
THE SPLENDID STAR VEGA
so bright that the eye lifted at random to the
sky is irresistibly attracted to it. Yet Vega is
at least four times as remote as the little star in
Cygnus. The latter. which is, INTACT a double
star, possesses only one-quarter Of the mass of
our sun, and emits one-eighteenth as much
light, while Vega pours forth sixty or seventy
times more light than the sun, and is probably
proportionately more massive. On the other
hand, many of the faint stars owe there lack
OF brllliance not to their smallness but to their
distance. For instance, Sirius, the Dog Star a
respondent phenomenon in the winter sky, an
pears twenty times as bright to our eyes as the
Pole Star; yet, according to some recent inves-
LEGATIONS the latter is actually the greater body
OF the two, emitting ninety times as much light
as our sun, while Sirius emits only forty times
as much.
APPEALING TO THE IMAGINATION.
1t is in the ability not only to discover the
existence of millions of unknown stars, but in
some degree to measure and compare the act
ual size and brilliancy of other suns with ours
that the astronomers of this day appeal most
strongly to the popular imagination. 1t is
sounding the depths of space to some purpose
when we obtain evidence that they abound with
the utmost variety of material creations, fin
ished and unfinished, which in their constitu-
tion their manner of development, and their
genealogical functions may be compared with
the globe on whose surface We live and the sun
that makes our living possible.
Such views of the heavens as have been OBJ
tanned with the Lick telescope within the past
year, reveal here new forms of nebule, there
strange and significant intermingling of nebu-
lous and solar masses, and in other directions
measureless extensions of the starry system
ranks and professions of life-stirring suns
reaching on and on without end. until their
rays are swallowed up in immensely of dis
lance, give an overwhelming and yet stimulat-
ing sense Of the enormous, unthinkable activi-
ties of the living univers @.
What Cured Her.
From the philalelrhia