Arizona republican., 1901-01-18
ONE HUNDRED MILLION STARS.
Astronomical Wonders Revealed by the
 Old Century Eclipsed in the New.

At no period has astronomy advanc- ed with such strides as in the course of the nineteenth cintury, The assistance brought by improved inssrutncnts and photography, physics and chemistry, have transformed it from a mere study of the zcnl,Gal distances Cf the n:ars and their motion, to the analysis of their spcctra, which tels their composi- tion and their stage of evolution from tho nehulous gatherings which form the genesis of a world, to the barren plains whl2h mark thH world that is dead. A revolution has thus been brought about in astronomy, far reaching in it's effects, wh.ch will pave the way for other discoveries doub.- less greater than any here etofo:e con ceivCd. In astronomy there can never be a backward step; not moment Is lost, not an effort wa.ted It Is the pursuit of infnAy, infinite in it's pos truth.
 OBSERVING 50,0OO STARS.
 The eighteenth century was clcsed by the observations of 5O,OO0 stars made al the observatory of tAc Ecole Mili- t1ire, by Jerane de la Lande and his nephew. Le Frarcais Gr Ia La2de. On these CSs .vat.ons all subzequea, stud ics and comparisons have been tased. In the first quarter of this century Walloston saw the solar spectrum, and black lines crossing the colors, but he dh not undsrataEd ,hen. Following in h.s footsteps. FraunAoffer gained fur thcr knowledge concerning the spec trum, and interpret q 1t. naming the colors for the first eight letters of the alphabet. He found that the same lines which are black in the sun are brilliant whitr in the vap0rs of tecres- tial substances such as water iron hydrogen, magnesium, or carbon. If two spectra, one of tlc sun of our unl- verse, or of any star that forms the center of another universe, and the oth- CT of vapor found on earth, are laid slGn by side so that a given hack lire corresponds with a given white one, all the other lines, whlt, and black, are found to correspond exactly. This proves that they all follow the same law. For over fifty years photography has bsen used in astronomy with start ihS anu tNGI H-W TCSualS. NIICdt us IS the improvement of the large and per- fected modern telescopes over the mu- ral quarter circles of the last century, equally great is the improvement of photography over drawing, in clearnegs and accuracy. The sensitive pat, finds much that the eye could not detect, Tor 1t is capable of 6 protracted eXpos- ure, whereas the eye al a telescope be- comes dimmed after a minute or two. It has revealed double and triple stars. formerly unsuspected; 1t has waGched the movements of variable stars, and has yielded precsa information con- corning the rubulae.
 SEARCHING THE HEAVENS.
 To the naked eye stars are parcepti- ble only t1 the sixth magnitude; at one time. nc, more than five or six tnous- and can hc seen. although thu impress sion is conveyed that they are legion. After the sixth magnitude the aid of telescope is rcqClr5d, and henre tn" importance of a good instrument. To- day. Ehe stars visible from the first .o the thirte nth magnitude aggregate to ah,ut i3OOO,000, of which nearly lO,O0o,- coo hay" been photographed In the most powerful telescopes even the flf- teenth magnitude has ben revealed. of ,hls magnitude perhaps 100, ,0O0, coo stars heve tcen suspected; but knowl-