The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1891-12-20
SOME CELESTIAL
PHENOMENA.
Studying the Occult Mysteries Of the
Heavenly Bodies.
Wandering Through the Realms Of Space by
Means Of the Telescope-Beautiful Wis
ions Unveiled to the Eye.
Written for THE SUNDAY CALL

About three weeks ago the writer took a
party 20 the Chabot observatory in Oak
land. No doubt this observatory is familiar
to the many readers of THE CALL who take
any interest in astronomy, and probably
many of them have, like the writer, repaired
to the Oakland City hall and obtained per-
mission from the Superintendent of Schools
to visit It. Any detailed description of an
institution already SO we'll known would
therefore be out Of place, but an account Of
what was seen through the excellent 81 inch
telescope and some remarks relative thereto
might not be unacceptable.
Our party arrived at 7:30 in the evening,
and, after registering, were ushered by Mr.
Burckhalter into the dome-room. The first
object toward which the telescope was
directed was the planet Jupiter, which we
see at this time in the early evening shining
as an extremely bright star to the south.
We viewed it with three magnifying pow
ers, 90, $50 and 800 diameters The first Of
these was put in merely to give a general
view of the planet and It's system of four
satellites, one of which was at the time
hidden by the planet. The power of 450
c. Used Jupiter to appear very large in COM
paTison, but 1t was too high power under
the circumstances. the unsteadiness of the
air causing the planet to present very
blurred appearance. The diametric line,
$50, is about as high power as most astron-
Cmers would use with such telescope in
examining planet even on the finest of
nights, and proportionate magnifying pow
ers-that is about fifty diameters to the inch
of aperture-are the highest which can be
used with real advantage on the moon and
planets.
Professor Y Dung of Princeton, speaking
OF the magnifying powers he uses with the
23-incb telescope belonging to that uniyer-
sity, says Observatory, vol. TX. page 99:
ION Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus we use 800
or $50 diameters usually, 700 often, $50 and
1900 exceptionally. The highest power
named worked perfectly on Jupiter last
spring, on two different evenings, in bring
ing out fine details relating to the great red
spot, and showing the true form OF certain
white spots on the south polar belt" A
state ment like this, made by 50 well-known
and capable an astronomer as Professor
Young, is an excellent answer to the base
less statements of those who persist In de-
caring that it is impossible to use as high
powers, propOrtionately speaking, with a
large telescope as with small one. The
writer personally knows of two occasions
when a power OF 1000 dlameters was used
with the 36-inch Lick telescope in studying
planetary detail, and on one of these it was
employed in examining Jupiter. The occa-
sion VAS night last October, when Jupiter,
even On the meridian. was not quite half
way from the horizon to the zenith. On
most good nights the power that can be used
ON a planet when at such an altitude is only
about one-haf what would be employed
were IL in the zenith.
But to return to the Chabot telescope.
The last power tried was 300 diameters, and
this certainly gave the best view of the
planet. The great red spot. which was in
visible with the other two powers, showed up
guile plainly, being about one-third way on
It's Journey across the planets disk. OF
course, all the principal belts were seen,
but scarcely any of the details visible in
them on fine nights with such an in
strument could be noted.
The next object which we viewed was the
beautiful double star Beta CygBi, the CON-
ponents of which are red and blue. For
small or moderate-sized telescope this is one
OF the finest doubles In the sky. 1t is
singular fact that In all the highly cOlored