Evening star., 1901-04-03

that what astronomers term it's spectrum
you have seen the suns spectrum cast in
seven colors by a prism-is composed of
very heavy lines or bands of yellow and
red. with the remainder of the colors miss
ing. This the professor regards very
remarkable, although somewhat similar to
phenomena of new stars appearing in for
mer times Asked what these colorS indi-
Gated with respect to the material COM
posing Nova, he said that there were af1ame
in 1t elements somewhat like hydrogen and
sodium, but that it seemed to lack all the
other elements present in usual types of
stars.
Collision Occurred a Century Ago.
Nova is probably billions upon trillions
of miles from the earth. The professor
would not estimate it's distance any more
definitely tnan this. The fact that it ap-
pears perfectly fixed in the heavens indi-
Gates, he said, that it's distance is incredi-
BILE 1t probably takes a century or per-
haps more for it's light to travel through
space before reaching our sphere.
Therefore, the sudden illumination of
Nova. which we earthly mortalS began to
see February 81, in all likelihood occurred
when our forefathers were wearing queues
and small clothes Peering at Nova to-
night we are doubtless looking backward
upon an event of the days of our great
great-great-grandfathe Were we pos
sessed of telescope of sufficient power to
bring the new star within very close range
of vision we would, perhaps, witness in
detail occurrences Of the time Of our revo
lutionary war. Vice versa, if Nova is in
habited, and if it's people are so adept in
optics as to construct an instrument strong
enough to observe our persons and en-
vironment, they doubtless see us lighting
fires with flint and steel; travelling long
distances in cumbersome stage coaches.
Our cities do not glow with electric lamps;
not even with gas lights. Our land is
bare of railroads; our sea of steamboats,.
A century ago the confiagration which
,.{n aaa oe-,,1t ha,~ II
sion probably died away, leaving her again
a dark Yet we see her tonight a
shining star.
To the best of mans knowledge and be-
lief, no such phenomena as this has ever
occurred within our solar system, save,
perhaps, little meteoric showers. But
when we compare the largest meteorite
which we can carry about the earth with
this star-meteor, Nova, great our
sun-which has 1892 times the earth'S d.
ameter-the contrast makes us dizzy
Within the entire history of astronomy
there have before this appeared only eleven
of these temporary stars. Only two have
attained the magnitude of Nova-one in
1872 the other in 1904. The first tempo
rary star on record was seen 134 years be-
fore Christ by the ancient astronomer Hip
parchus. The second appeared 3S9 years
after Christ The third was the brightest.
1t was discovered by Tycho in November,
1872. 1t became as bright as Venus her
self. and was even visible by daylight 1t
reached first magnitude, but In a week or
two began to fade 1t continued visible to
the naked eye for fully sixteen months.
There was notion at the time that this
sta1 was identical with the star of Beth
lehem. The theory was that the latter
would return every 314 years. 1t was,
therefore, expected by the superstitious
to return in 1885, but did not. The tenn
porary star of 1904, though not so bright
as that of 1872, lasted for two years. In
the seventeenth century there were three
such phenomena. There was none in
the eighteenth, but five in the nineteenth
in 1s4s, go, '66 '76 and 's5. That of '66
blazed out between the 10th and 18th Of
May as star of the second magnitude, re-
manned thus for three four days, and in
five or six weeks faded away to its origi-
nal faintness. 1t is now, as it had been be-
fore, 91a magnitude star, with nothing
noticeable to distinguish it from it's neigh
bors. That of '76 rose to second magni-
tude in four hours, remained thus day or
two and became invisible within month.
But it still exists a very small star of
the fifteenth magnitude, visible only
through the telescope. That of 'S5 reached
only 61s magnitude, but excited wonder at
the time because 1t appeared in the midst
of enc Of the nebulouS or cloud-lfke masses
which Prof. See described to me.
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS, JR.