The morning call., 1893-08-06
NO SPORT IN 1T NOW.
Hunting for Shooting-Stars Done
With the Camera in These Days.
WashipVtOn Six

Washington Star.
There was time when the hunting of aste.
rOl0s was the athletic sport with which the
Tired astronomer refreshed his mind and MUS
cies Wearied with prolonged calculations as
to the weight OF a ton of Goals on the sur
face OF Jupiter, or the density Of beer on
the surface of the sixth moon of Uranus
ana with his right arm and fingers cramred
and numbed from the excessive use OF chalk
and blackboard, the astronomer would take
his Telescope and in the bright. crisp winter
night stalk the timid asteroid through the
starry jungieS of the skies. says the W shng-
tou Star. 1t was not often that ne made a sue
cessful bag. Sometimes lie would hunt night
after night for weeks before capturing single
asteroid, but he was always buoyed up by the
hope of game. and when he did bring down an
asleroid with his bieech loading reflector or
his small but handy refractor. and was enabled
favorite fellow astronomer. he was indeed a
proud and happy man. But this fine old
astronomical sport is at an end. The
ae Is aSroaa S aud h There
reason TO believe hat in the course of a very
few years at the furtDest, every existing.
asierOid will have been cabtured. The meth cd
oil The trapper is as simple as it Is uDspottsman-
ike. de sets his camera at nightfall and goes
home To his family unli the following morning.
cl"ckWok attachment gives a motion to the
Camera Identical with the apparent motion OF
the fixed stars. so that The images of the latter
never vary their places on the sensitive plate.
When, however, the trapper finds a
FAINT but prolonged line of light extending over
the plate, lie knows that 1t is the trail of the
asst roid. and lie at once proceeds to complete
us capture by givingi name and calculating
Its elements.
The uususpecting asteroids who had long
ago grown shy OF the telescope have not yet
discovered the existence of the camera traps,
and they are captured in large numbers. II
Is quite usual for irapper TO report the capture
OF four or five in single night 1t is true that
lie rarely makes any sdlstncion between the
traces actually made by an asteroid and the
marks on The plate due to imperfrctions
in The emulsion or TO scratches made dur.
Ing development. In his greed lie treats
all marks as asteroids that come to his
trap. and there can be no doubt that "A
certain proportion OF The asteroids recently
named and given a place in The solar sys-
TEN have no existence outside OF the pho
tographlc plate where the trapDer fanc- d that
he had detected their trail. s III, it is evident
that the traps are nightly capturing an enor-
nous number Of asteroids and unless some
thing is done for The preservation this variety
of celestial game will sooner or later become
as extinct the American buffalo. To the
average man 1t may seem TO be matter
of very little consequences how asteroids
are captured. but to those VIII, VINO ARE are
thrir welfare and that of their wives and
families at heart the prospect that legitimate
asieroid hunting Is about to become impossible
longer keep up his health and spirits
| by beating the milky way tor asteroids
his health must inevitably suf !. PhyscianS
are agreed that astronomy. II habitualiy in
the nerves. Indeed the confirmed and
excessive astronomer is invariably irritable
and quarrels"me, even In spite OF the
tonic influence OF ast-roid hunting. Ii
that resource should no longer be open
10 him his condition will be simply pit
liable and such hing as an astrOnnmc home
will be utterly unknown. The astronomers
only recreation will be found In contradicting
tile theories and denying the discoveries of
other astronomers, and the NEE Ing Of an astro-
nomical society would be a scene of wild uD-
roar. mingled with flying states and Jumps Of
chalk.
The asterod trap should be declared TO be
Illegal, and no aseroid captured In any came ra
tran should be PERMITTED to be enrolled on the
official planetary list. If this were done as
lie Old hunting would sill remain the heal;hful
and Improving sport OF The true astronomer.
and The trapper would take his deserved place
with the poacher who eXplOdes dynamite In
trout streams aud captures pheasants IN nets.