El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-13

Have you seen the star?
The question is often heard on the
streets of Ell Paso these days. Little
groups of men and women. girls and
boys, can be seen almost any pleasant
evening. scanning the northern firma-
ment in the effort to descry the bright
visaged guest.
The new star. already named Nova
Persei, or the new star in the conStel-
lation Perseus. was discovered few
weeks ago by Rev. DR.. T. ID. Anderson,
of Edinburgh. Scotland. and by him no.
titled to Harvard university. The dis
covery took on certain local inter-
est from the fact that about that time
there appeared in The Herald the claim
of Phoenix man that he had discov-
cred the new star with the naked eye
before Harvard university was ap-
prised of the discovery.
| When first seen by Dr. Anderson it
was somewhat fainter than the pole
star. Its light soon increased to that
of star of the first magnitude. There
are only fourteen stars of the first
magnitude visible in this latitude. This
discovery ranks among the most i'm
portant astronomical events of recent
years.
If any one is curious to see the new
star, whose piercing white light in the
northern heavens seems to be slowly
diminishing its location can be indicat
ed by a simple diagram. The new
star is on the meridian between and >
o'clock in the afternoon. so that it is
more than so degrees west of the meri-
dian by the time night falls, about Z
O'Clock.
How to Find the Star.
From that time to midnight it works
in an oblique circular path toward the
northern horizon, and about 10 o'clock
ii forms with the brightest neighbor-
ing stars perfect symmetrical figure.
the new star being almost in the cen
ter of an equilateral triangle. the var
liable blue star. Algol. being directly
beneath it.
To state it more plainly. step out
under the open sky. sometime between
and 10 O'Clock. Find the pole star.
face it, then raise the eyes toward the
zenith. When the eye has reached a
point something more than half way
to the zenith. turn the gaze to the left
or west and in the midst of three bright
stars. which form triangle, the new
star will he seen. AS you look, think
of the fact that you are looking at the
flash of bomb that burst ten. fifty. or
hundred years ago, and became a
vast bulk of incandescent vapor, from
which the light is just now reaching
the earth, having travelled over $4,000
miles every second of the time. Yet
there were philosophers and religious
men not SO very long ago. who con-
tended that the poor. wiZened little
earth. that would hardly constitute
an atom of one of these stupendous
worlds,-that this earth was the center
of the universe.
Measuring Its Distance.
Ten days ago the Flower Observa-
tory began series of measurements |
for parallaX. This is the means by |
which astronomers approximate the |
distance OF celestial bodies so remote |
that nothing but abstruse problems in
mathematics can be applied to them
with any hope of reaching a solution.
Prof. Doolittle and his assistant. Eric
Doolittle, have been adjusting for three
days the delicate measuring instru
ments attached to the large 17-inch
telescope in the Flower OBJ
servatory.
The method of determining the dis
lance of star is to observe it's
change of position with reference to
fainter and presumably remoter stars
in its vicinity, at two intervals dur
ing the year, precisely six months
apart. Six months from now the
earth will be in the opposite part of it's
orbit. and the changes in the stars
position at that time. plotted down on
charts at each successive observation,
will indicate whether it describes what
is known technically as a ''parallactic
orbit and if. it is found to have one,
regardless of proper motion in
space. the amount of this progressive
change in position will furnish data for
a calculation which will show it's ap-
proXimate distance.