Arizona republican., 1901-06-11
A. NEW WAY. OF. SEEING THE HEAVENLY BODIES
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SSStvNSStJsJSSeJsJS SStySIc6NSusJe6SS3SySs Cambridge, Mass--A new atlas of the
 moon Is being prepared for publication by Professor, w. H. Pickering of the Harvard observatory from material ob-
 tained during the past season by means
 of the 136-foot telescope at the observ- atory's temporary astronomical station in Jamaica. Although observations
 were interrupted by the approach of the rainy season in May. the undertak- ing is sufficiently advanced to be com pleted by midsummer, and Professor Pickering has already brought to Cam bridge full set of the photographs necessary for the proposed publication.
 although he hopes to be able to secure
 better pictures to replace certain of
 them which have proved not entirely
 satisfactory.
 The apparatus by which the photo-
 graphs were taken has excited interest
 all over the world. though undoubtedly
 it would strike the average man at first
 glance of inspection as being the most
 impracticable imaginable. In the moun-
 tains of Jamaica. at an altitude of 2,000 feet, two miles from Vaudeville, forty
 from Kingston in a particularly lonely
 region, there are on steep hillside two
 buildings connected by long box-like structure set on poles-which last con
 talns, or rather is the great lunar
 telescope. It ia a fixed telescope and
 is placed parallel to the axis of the earth. At the equator it's position
 would be horizontal. but at Vaudeville,
 where the latitude is eighteen degrees, the northern end of the telescope must
 be raised at that angle, so that the side Of a hill of approximately the right grade Is utilized the fact that the in st1ument is thus in the position of being pointed down hill being neutral ised by the further fact that the celes- tial bodies are observed not directly but through the medium of a mirror.
 The little house at the foot of the htll has a roof which is made in two parts and is counter balanced by weights so that 1t can be puE1ed aside when ob- servations are to be made. A large mirror is set on a concrete pedestal and attached to an electric motor, SO that while the earth is revolving from west to east the mirror is being turned at the same rate of speed in the opposite direction. and therefore may be kept hXed on any heavenly object while 1t remains above the horizon. On another pedestal, higher than the mirror and opposite the aperture of the telescope. is lens twelve inches in diameter, What answers for the tube is not the hnrfnnf I Ia,.. .f afals Is always as.Ociated with telescope In the popular mind, but merely q rough frame of wood covered with wire retting and builders paper. with a peaked roof to shed rain. This box is not absolutely light proof. but since the observations are all made at night 1t serves it's purpose very well.
 The upper end of the box opens into a two-story building containing an- other pedestal upon which may be planed either n photographs plate holder. when It is desired to use the apparatus as a camera. or an eye piece. when the apparatus Is to be used visu, ally. The plate holder is moved auto maucaEy by an electric motor, and all the governing instruments are controI-. lable bY the observer in tha upper building. although. as a matter of con venience in case of an accident to the Professor Pickering has had m assistant in the lower building dur. ing the progress of observations By an ingenious electric al device the clock | work governing the motors at the lower ! end of the telescope is regulated ley the | obaerver 136 feet away. so that he may |