The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-09-08

occurrences of a night-an actual
working night-spent in the Lick OBJ
servatory, by the writer, in the au-
| tumn of 1893. 1t was Mr.. Barnard's
night at the great telescope, and
with the consent of DR.. Hol-
den, L was admitted under the
vast dome, entering in the dy-
| ing light of a faultless September
day The particular work which Mr..
| Barnard had in hand was the measure
ment of certain close and difficult
double stars, and, later, the observa-
ton of the new Satellite of Jupiter dis
! covered by him about "a year before.
1t was, of course, understood that
should in no way interrupt his work,
although he generously gave me every
possible opportunity to see for myself
what the giant could do. I have not
by me, my notes Of what was seen that
night, and probably a general tran
scription of those notes would possess
but little interest, but there were a
few things which were branded upon
my memory. One of these was view
of the moon with the sunrise line gilt
tering upon the towering "Appen-
nines," and which the VALLEY of the
Alps" struggling out of the immense
shadows of its enclosing precipices
Another memorable spectacle was the
great star cluster in the Constellation
Hercules, a ball of suns with pendant
sun-tassels. No other telescope had
ever shown me the heart of that Won
der; perhaps no other in the world
could have shown it. l remember a
third marvel in Andromeda, where
two close-linked blue suns slowly circle
around a golden-hued neighbor dubbed
Gamma in the star catalogues; and
yet fourth in Gemini, where a lone
sun is mysteriously girded about with
a vast pale nebuIa, whose circular disk
is ssvered in the midst by a concentric
ring, perfect in outline and as black
as ink! To describe these things is not,
1 confess, ITO describe the work of an
astronomer, yet they should not go I'M
mentioned, for they reveal at glimpse.
what the field is that he labors in. Is
it any wonder that the astronomer
finds asscientific use for the inspira-
tion?
Measuring Double Stars.
One special branch of Mr.. l3arnard's
work that night was, as [ have said,
the measurement of certain close
double stars, or that class of double
stars, called 'fbfnaries,' in which a
motion of revolution of the two stars
around their common centre has been
detected. Hour after hour passed in
this employment Magnified in the
gloom to still more gigantic proper
tons, the great tube was moving from
star to star, now pointing overhead,
now dropping far down the slope of the
sky, while from time to time the To-
foot dome itself, by the easy applica-
ton of powerful mechanism, was
caused to revolve upon its base in
order to keep the long narrow OPEN
ing in line with the axis of the tele-
scope. The process for each star was:
first, consultation of a. catalogue or a
note book, in order to locate the star
in the sky by what one may call its
latitude and longitude; then a turning
Of the telescope to the designated
place, quick, critical scrutiny of the
object, a rapid adjustment of the micro
vertical measuring apparatus attached
to the eye-piece, a careful double-
reading of the graduated screws
and circles determining the distance
apart and direction from one another
OF the two stars constituting the
Urinary" and lastly, penciled notes
jotted in a book and everything was
ready for the next couple of distant
suns. Thus through the live-long night
stores were gathered of that pure
kind of knowledge which is cultivated
for its own sake alone. The world
would wag just the same If the peri
DDS Of revolution Of those circling
primary stars remained unknown, but