The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-08
THE LICK OBSERVATORY.
a. INTERESTING DESCRIPTION OF
IT By PROF. AsHlIORE.

of Travel by the Georgia Teachers
They VIII soon BE on Their Way
Home.
Lick Observatory. Mt. Hamilton, Cal.
7.-y eS-From Chinatown TO Mt. Hamfl-
nm From the opium dens of San Fran
cisco 10 the Lick Observatory! What a
--ansitioni There every noble sentiment
is lost in very hades Of vice and cor
-s9tion; here the whole spiritual being
stands tiptoe on this Olympus
NJ The soul in closer communion with
the Creator of all things than from any
mint on the earth. Mt. Hamilton. the site
Of the Lick Observatory. is twenty-seven
miles east Of San Jose. 1t is elevated
44i3 feet above the level OF the sea, and
beauty and grandeur is spread out on all
sides The broad Pacific glints like a
silver ribbon on the western horizon. At
our feet apparently lies San Jose, with
irs leagues on leagues Of environing YER
dure, from orchards of peaches. plums,
Irunes and vines. laid out with the regu-
larity of a checker-board. and sixty miles
further to the north the broad bay of
san Francisco lies in full view,
encirclng the cities of San
Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley in it's
arms, while through the Golden Gate
pOurs that vast stream of fog and cold
wind from the Arctic current, which must
fill up the arefaction caused by the hot
ascending air currents over the valley of
the San Joaquin. To the east the deep
blue crests of the Sierra Nevadas lie in
sharp outline against the horizon, while
far to the north, up the Sacramento val
ley. some 400 miles away, the snow-capped
head of Mt. Shasta drowses in a dreamy
haze of opalescent air. have seen no
evenings come as they come here; no. fare
wells of the day equal to those on Mt.
Hamilton. 1t is an inspiration TO behold the
sun rise out of the waves of the Atlantic
and shed a glory of gold over awaking
earth, but to watch from Mt. Hamilton,
the great monarch Of day sink to his
crimson couch upon the placid waters of
the Pacific is a miracle of beauty and
sublmity never to be forgotten. Every
sentiment of the soul is around and soft
ened, and our whole being mingles its
Good night" with that of minaret and
dome, and crag and mountain peak, whose
lofty tops are tipped with the parting
beams of the sun. This alone is worth
the trip over a long and dusty stage road
from San Jose to Mt. Hamilton. This
spot was selected as the site of the observ-
atory on account of the remarkable clear
ness of the sky and the steadiness of the
air nearly all the year round. 1t Is well
known that James Lick, fortunate in
weston in California lands, gave 100000 for
the purposes of the observatory, the con
troll of which is vested in the regents Of
the University of California. Several
other donations of importance have since
been made which have enabled the re-
gents to equip here the finest and most
complete astronomical observatory in the
world. Every instrument needed for the
exploration of the heavens is found here,
and although many of them are worthy
of a lengthy description, public curiosity
naturally centers upon the great equato-
rial telescope. Through the personal
courtesy of Prof. Holden, the director of
the observatory, and Prof. Barnard, the
modest hero of modern astronomical OBJ
servers, l was enabled to examine the
entire equipment of the observatory and
to see some of the revelations of the great
optical wonder which swings with easy
touch upon its gigantic bearings in dome
seventy-ive feet in diameter, standing
upon a smooth brick wall thirty-eight
inches thick The dome itself is admira-
bly, constructed. The moving parts weigh
$4,000 pounds, and can be set in motion by
a pull of less than 200 pounds. That
IS one pound can move 1000. The circular
floor which is 61ia feet in diameter, IS
moved bodily up and down by hydraulic
engines through a play of 81 feet to secure
the proper adjustment of the observer to
the instrument at all angles. The tube of
the telescope proper is nearly 60 feet in
length and about 40 inches in diameter.
1t is made of steel plates riveted together
after the manner of a. steam boiler, and
SO delcately poised that the hand of
child may easily turn it, The object glass
which is the most delicate and valuable
part of the whole instrument, is SO inches
in diameter with a focal length of 90 feet
The Photographic tense IS SO inches in di-
ameter and about $50 inches focus. The
Photographic image of the sun is, there
fore 3 Ito inches in diameter. The his
tory of the objective is, briefly, as follows:
The flint disc was obtained from Fell, in
Paris, in April, 1882 After nineteen fail
ures, the crown was successfully cast in
September, 1855. In 1886 a third photo
graphic crown disc was purchased also
from Fell which was cast at the same
time with the successful crown disc for
the visual objective; 1t broke in the hands
OF the ClarkS in 1885, In 1887 Mr.. Avian
G. Clark went to Paris and procured the
crown glass from Fell, which was worked
into a third tense The visual objective
was completed by the Clarks of Boston
and delivered in 1886, but one year elapsed
before 1t was mounted. The mounting, to-
gether with all the delicate and complica-
ted machinery necessary to place the huge
telescope under complete control of the
observer, was done by Warner and Swasey
of Cleveland.
On Saturday nights only are visitors
generally permitted to look through the
telescopes The glasses are turned upon
some celestial object and the visitors in
turn take a peep and pass on. Besides
the great thirty-six-inch equatorial there
is also a twelve-inch and a siX-inch equa-
torial which are at the disposal of the
public on these nights. My first observa-
ton was upon the planet Saturn through
the great thirty-six inch equatorial. Ma
Jestically the planet with its broad rings
swung into view, revealing as much de-
tail as mortal eyes as yet have been per
mitted to gaze upon. Four of its eight
moons We're clearly visible, the other four
being hidden behind the planet itself 1t
Is difficult for one to conceive of the vast
ness of our solar system and the enor-
nous volumes of the larger planets by
simply looking at them with the naked
eye or even through a small telescope,
but at the eye-piece of the great Lick
equatorial the idea of vastness is over