The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-05-29
THE sun AND ITS SPOTS.

A goodly number of people from tht
city, and several visitors from abroad were
attracted to the Garfield Friday morning
to see the sun spots and to hear the lee
ture, as announced, upon this subject OF
so great present interest. Great credit
is due Mr.. Frank Payne, student, for his
ingenious Continuance of the screen at
tachment to the telescope, upon which an
enlarged image of the spots was projected.
and for his skillfuI manipulation of the
instrument. At 1850 all assembled in the
lecture roo m, when in the half hour al
lotted the professor succeeded in present
ing great amount of valuable informa-
ton In very attractive manner. Only a
synopsis can be given.
The sun has always been an object OF
universal interest. Sun worship has been
the religion of every primitive people
The myths and legends of every nation all
center about his day God. And nothing
more natural. He is the center and source
of power, and warmth. and light, the sup
porter of life, the beautifier of landscape
and sea and cloud and sky.
The mean distance of the sun from US,
by the latest estimate is go S97, 900 miles
Will pOSSIUfc 6ETOI VI SOLuC H%UO,JOO
This distance is practically inconceiv-
ing LOCO miles day. would require over
254 years to cover it. Light traverses it in
400 seconds.
Yet enormous as this distance
is, 1t is too infinitesimal to be of use to
the astronomer as a unit in expressing the
transcending immensities known as the
light year" i. e., the distance light will
IVA, Il ~,
81, 900 times the suns distance. But the
nearest fixed star cannot be less than
three of these eight years" from US, and
very few of them less than 300.
The suns surface is 1000 times the
earth's. and his volume 1,S00. 900 times.
The force OF gravity at the suns surface is
27.6-a man weighing 80 pounds here,
would weigh about two tons there, and a
body would fall 444 feet in second in
stead of l6, as here.
The suns attraction on the earth is suff-
cient to defect the earth towards it one
ninth inch every second. During this
time the earth travels more than eighteen
miles. Were it not for this attraction, the
earth would fly off at a tangent from its
this attraction replaced by steel wires us
large as telegraph wires, IL would
require them to be attached
one-half inch apart all over the
face of the earth, and then they would
barely endure the strain. The sun is sup
posed to consist Of molten or semi-liquid
center, of many of the commonest ele-
ments known on earth; this surrounded by
8 luminous sphere photo sphere) of vapor
Of these substances, floating in an atmos-
phere charged with the same gases, AS
clouds float in our atmosphere.
Above Or outside this philosophers IS a
region of gases, mostly hydrogen, in
high state of rarefaction. flames of which
shoot upward with great velocity to the
height of hundreds of thousands of miles,
giving through the telescope the most gor
geous display of color Imaginable. This
region is known as the chromosphere
color sphere) The philosophers (lght
sphere) forms the disc of the sun as ordin-
Irily visible to the eye.
OF the various theories as to the "spots'
hat most generally held is that they are
eruptions OF the philosophers, caused, per-
maps, by outbursts of peutup gases from
within. The dark centers may be open
ngs, riffs through which we look into the
depths of the sun; but many suppose they
are caused by the settling of heavier and
cooler gases into these cavities-for cavi-
lies they surely are. They occur i'll great
EST frequency in periods of about
IL years. The recent years of maximum
frequency were 1859, 1870, 1898 "a year
behind time) and the present year, 1892.
they cross the suns disc in about twelve
and one-half days, showing that the
revolves in about twenty-five
lays.
The terrestrial Influences of the spots are
very marked. Especially is an increased
frequency and Intensity of these phe-
lomena invariably and Immediately fol-
owed by magnificent aurOral displays,
md great magnetic disturbances.