Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1892-01-30
WONDERS OF THE HEAVENS.


What Photography Is Doing TO Tell the
Story of the Stars.
There are millions of unlisted stars,
and we know not what far-reaching
masses of nebulosity; each star,
ca n nebuIa, has a different story,
as full of varied detail as the story of
the earth and it's inhabitants, and even
of that story how little we read or can
read. And yet we would like to read
the story of each nebula and star and
compare them one with another; some
barest outline we are learning of a few
hundreds, and differentiating star from
sta, guessing at their age, their tenn
perature, their distance
And now and then a discovery or a
pi..ure comes, like Mr.. Roberts photo
graph of the nebula in Andromeda, and
throws a food of light upon their ma
ture and gives us answers we had hard
~ hoped to know, and shows us new
questions that seem even further out
of reach.
Perhaps the most truly wonderful
thing this century has seen is that neg
alive on which the Andromeda nebula
has printed its own image; on a few
square inches of Photographic plate
is the Ineligible autobiography of a
nebula measuring its length by billions
of miles, taking light, 1T has been said,
six years to travel from end to end, and
showing us obviously and at once a
deiniteness of structure hitherto I'M
suspected
Comparisons of successive photo
graphs of this nebula have been made
with a view of detecting evidence of
change, and whatever opinion may be
f. rmei as to changes in the course of
years, but little doubt can exist that
changes happen in the course of ages
and that little by little nebul@ con-
dense into stars.
Full of absorbing interest is the posi-
bility of detecting changes in a single
nebula, but there is vaster problem
behind, in which the evidence of many
changes is only part of the solution.
The problem that we reach toward,
and of which we hope some day to find
the outline of the true solution, is no
less than the structure and development
of the sidereal universe itself.
Some day it may be we shall pene-
trate the star depths, for every hour
added to the exposure of a Photographic
plate has added to the number of stars
reve aled upon the picture, and if as we
get more sensitive plates and longer
exposures, if necessary, on two or more
nights in succession, we find that no in
crease of exposure gives an increase in
the number of stars on the plate, then
we may conclude that the limits of the
star depths have been reached, and that
nothing lies beyond.
Yet, even so, an element of mistrust
comes in. Not only can the photo
graphic eye see things no human eye
will ever look upon, because the one
can accumulate minute effects, while
the other cannot but the Photographic
plate is sensitive to ultraviolet rays, of
light that have no effect upon the
human retina, and if there are any
bodiesin space emitting such rays the
photograph will record them though
they are forever invisible to our eyes.
and similarly if there are any bodies in
space not sending forth rays of light
between those whose wave lengths are
slightly longer than waves of red light
and those whose waves are slightly
shorter than the waves of violet light,
neither eye nor camera can take ac-
count of them, however important their
places may be in the architecture of
| the heavens -Westminster Review.