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

no man who respects the human mind
would dare to say that the work ac-
complished by night on Mount Ham
| ilton is not, in the long run, at least
as important to humanity as is the
work accomplished by day in Wall
! street.
The east was flooded with the sun
before the observations of Jepiter be-
! gan, the reason for the delay being
that the newly discovered satellite did
! not attain its greatest enlargement
| from the planet until just before sun
rise. 1 was surprised at the ease with
which [ was able to see it., an excess
/ lively minute point of light, so close to
the huge belted form of Jupiter. The
observation was facilitated by a piece
of smoked mica in the eye piece, be-
| hind which the glazing disk of the
great planet was placed while the lit
tie satellite being uncovered, shone
with all the strength of it's feeble
light. Mr.. Barnard's observations had
for their ultimate object, the determine
alton of the exact period of the satel-
llte's revolution around the planet. AS
its distance from Jupiter increased he
measured it again and again, jotting
the result of each measurement in his
note book, and resuming the work as
quickly as possible. In this way the
satellite could be followed out to the
extremity of its orbit (Which, from the
earth, appears nearly as a short
straight line running through Jupiters
center), and the moment when it's
greatest distance was attained and it
began to approaehthe planet could be
approximately determined.
While these and other similar OBJ
serVations We're going on in the great
dome, Mr.. Campbell, to whom L paid
brief visit. in theZcourse of the night,
was busy with a smaller telescope in
another part of the observatory photo
graphing the spectra of nebulae. And
this, OF course, was not all of the work
gong on that night in the little colony
of astronomers, perched so high above
the busy world that the electric lights
OF san Jose down in the valley re
sembled swarm of distant fire flies.
1t was only all that l saw When we
stepped out of the dome the sun was
just lifting itself from behind the
Sierra Nevada mountains, whose out
line, printed against the eastern skv.
I30 miles away, was a. saw-edge of fire.
Importance of the Work Already
Done.
1t is interesting to observe how MANY
OF the special researches indicated by
DR.. Holden in his memorandum of 1874
as suitable TO be undertaken by the
new observatory, have already been
completed or brought abreast of the
Tune. Among these are the determine
ton OF the position of certain funda-
mental stars; the Photographic record
OF sunspots; photographs of the
brighter planets, Jupiter, Venus, Sat
urn and Mars and of the moon; photo
graphing the spectra of stars: the oh
serVatlon and measurement of double
stars; the photographing of nebulae;
llle observation OF earthquake phenom-
ena (Which are not infreuuent in Cali
formal, not to speak of the nro1 mt
publication of the results attained,
This last named object has been achiev-
ed both through the popular press and
In a more official and technical form
ohrough the principal scientific periodi.
Gals OF the world, and particularly the
Publications of the Lick Observa-
tory and the Publications of the As
economical Society of the Pacific - of
which DR.. Holden was the foundar
Dr. Holders own writings on aetro-
nom1cal subjects are mainly contained
IN these publications as we'll az in. tha
publ1cat1ons of the naval observa to,,v
ana OF the Washburn observatory az
Hiaolson' Wisconsin, whose director
Gnu pracllcal organizer he was be-
tween 1881 and 1885, while the work of
constructing the Lick obserVa tory was
gong on in accordance with his MANS
lie IS also the author of a life IF Cir
William Herschel," and co-autbor willy,
Professor NeWcon1b, Of a valuable taxt-
DOCK OF Astronomy for Schools and
CoLeges. His Monograph of the Orion
Nepula represents the utmost that
the telescope could achieve in unravel-
ling the mysteries of that chaotic cor
ner of celestial space before the recent
successful application of photogranhv
TO such work. The observations there
recorded were made with the 26-inch
glass of the Naval observatory. Sneak
ing of celestial photography. it should
be said that the great Lick telescope
possesses Photographic lens with
Which, among other things. photo
graphs of the moon have been OH
tanned SO excellent that upon enlarc-
ing them, DR.. Weinek, of Prague. has
discovered the existence of lunar de-
tails which had escaped the scrutiny
of the largest telescopes when used
with the eye alone.
The director of the Lick observatory
is, of course, a member Of MANY scien-
tltic societies in this country, and in
addition, is corresponding member of
the italian Spectroscopic society, etc..
foreign associate of the Royal AS
Economical society, an honorary mem
Der of the Astronomical Society of
France, and a commander of the Order
OF the Ernstine House of Saxony. 81
am very grateful" he has said, "for
many things in my life, two in particu-
lar-one, that it has so far been posi-
bic for me to do the work which is
most congenial; and, second, that it
has happened that this work Law in
countries which were beautiful and in
teresting of themselves West Point.
Madison, Wisconsin, Mount Hamilton
all are exceptionally beautiful situa-
tions-and Washington and San Fran
cisco are two of the most interesting
cities in America
And so, to the eyes even Of the as
tronomer, the earth itself is not the
least beautiful of the celestial bodies.
TUAIoRS.