Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1895-09-02
SPOTS ON THE SUN.
MYSTERIOUS BLEMlsHES ON A oAZ-
zLINGLY FAIR FACE.
The Periodical Waxing and waning ON
the Suns spottedness-A Perplexing Phe-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Made and Theories
Advanced on the Subject.

notoepon-DfscoveriesM Made and Theories
Advanced on the Subject.
On beautiful summer morning In 1893
a light cloud Of mist suddenly covered the
face Of the sun, abstracting the beams per-
ilous to the eye and providing singularly
fine definition Of the usually dazzling disk.
No one who looked at the pleasing specta-
Gle could have failed TO perceive pro-
uounced blot On the otherwise fair surface.
1t was "sun spot" group OF extraordi-
nary SIZE covering an area OF at least
1000, 600, 600 square miles, and furnishing
q hint Of the suns immensely, for its lar
ger diameter was not one-eighth nor Its
smaller diameter one-twelfth that OF the
sun.
The discovery Of sun spots Is not one OF
tho triumphs of our own golden age, for IN
the long long ago, in the "Flowery King
dom" Of PARKWAY China, there were mist
clouds and sharp eyes, as Is eyinced by rec
oris Of sun spots written In the banning
characters Of most remarkable alphapet'
And nearer our own time, in A. II. ooI,
European observers saw a large spot winch
was supposed to be the planet Mercury
But. like tho little worlds which roam ID
space between tho orbits Of Mars ana Ju-
inter. and which are discovered only 70 DC
lost again, sun spots figured so iittle III
the annals of the times that when Fa-
bricius announced In 1911 that he had
found clark spots on the sun ne agl-
tatcd the prevailing schools of philosophy
TO their depths for all such singular ap-
pearances had been attributed to the tran
sits Of planets. The great name Of Galilei
IA associated with the discovery, and that
mental giant claimed to have seen spots
earlier even than Fabricius. Still another
independent discovery was made by Schei-
ner.
Galilei and Fabricius saw that the spots
arc objects on the suns surface, carried
along by the rotation Of the sun on its
axis. For brief while Scheiner supposed
them to be planets, but he finally accepted
Galilei's views. And (here Is hint to
the wisc) he devised the excellent plan of
viewing tho spots by throwing the image
of the sun, procured by his telescope, on q
screen.
II q spot be seen upon the eastern limb
OF tho sun today, by tomorrow 1t Will have
changed It's position little nearer to tho
suns center In about seven days 1t will
pass the central line, and in seven more 1t
will disappear over the western edge. Very
probably 1t will again be seen in IA days
more, reappearing on the eastern limb,
which shows that, making allowance for
the earth's movement, the sun revolves on
It's axis in about 25 days.
But the spots may "break up afte- q
few days and utterly disappear, although
ON the average they last two or three
months. Some linger much longer, and
others live but few hours.
II spot be well developed, it will be
noticed with tho telescope that when on
the limb Of the sun 1t seems like a notch"
In the rim. 1t is very evidently depres-
sion In the solar surface. When it gets q
little farther "on" it Is seen to be black
spot with q shading on the farther side.
When 1t 10 central tho "cavity" is wido
open, and tho shading is seen all around
tho black center, which is called the "um-
brn.' Tho shading" which consists of
frngelike 1laments, is termed the "pe-
numbra" As the spot approaches the west
ern limb the eastern side of the penumbra
narrows and finally closes, so there can be
no doubt as to tho perspective In mo-
ments Of excellent definition the telescope
shows a surprisingly beautiful texture in
tho penumbra. In 1878 Professor Lang
ley, then Of Allegheny observatory, but
now Of tho Smithsonian, made drawing
of typical sun spot, which will well
repay study. Sometimes there are feath-
cry sweeps and delicate bridges" or daz-
cling lines OF light gently creeping or flash
Ing across che stupendous depths of the
umbra, and even the Creeping" must be
ut u rate of speed compared with which
the widest cyclone of earth would be but
tho gentle breathing of an infant.
Once two observers, miles apart, hap
pening to be studying the sun at the same
moment sxw an outburst at the edge Of n
great spot and two objects shaped like
new MOONS" about 5000 by 1000 miles,
far brighter than the surrounding surface
moved away from the spot for n few min
utes, traversing In that time upward of
81, 900 miles. Nor was the spot apparently
changed in structure by this curious Incl
dent Two photographs of spot, taken n
half hour apart, often show marked
changes, indicative of tremendous activity.
There are years when spots are abundant
and years when few are visible indeed,
there are months when mono is to be seen
even upon the closest scrutiny. And Ii Is
now well established that tho spots have II
period" of about IL years. That is to say
commencing with a maximum" period
when the spots are very numerous--it will
be about IL years until another maximum,
and during the interim the spots will have
decreased to minimum. The last
maximum was reached in 1898, and dur
ing that year there were times of superb
definition, when hundreds Of spots tiny
and titanic, were seen sprinkled over the
vast disk.
Galilei said that the spots are clouds
floating in the solar atmosphere, Some
later observers have considered them to
be eruptions from solar volcanoes. That
they are clouds many believe, but they
cannot be above the solar atmosphere, for
we have seen that they are far below the
solar surface, perhaps many hundreds of
miles in some instances. Some have main
tanned that they are mountain tops in n
fiery sea, while Horschcl, the elder, firmly
believed the sun to be n habitable body,
having two cloud coverings, the nearer
one dark yet light rejecting, the outer
one the philosophers" which we see,
while the spots, in his opinion. We're open
ings in the clouds, the umbr;n being the
portions Of the dark sun globe exposed to
view and the penumbra the inner cloud re-
eerred to.--Philadelphia Ledger.