Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-31
THE STARS BY DAYLIGHT.
Tradition That They May Be Seen
From Bottom Of Shaft.

FROM hnONItukes
Are the stars visible to ordinary sight In
the daytime? There is a widespread traoi-
lion that they are: that IL an observer
places himself at the bottom of any deep
shaft-as of a mine a WELL or factory
chimnev-which may shut on scattered
Ush. and reduce the area Of sky illunpina-
tIop acting on the retina he VIII be able
TO discern the brighter stars without dill
Guilty. The tradition is one of a respect
able antiquity. for Aristotle refers TO per-
sons seeing stars in daylight when looking
out from caverns of subterranean reser-
yoirs, and Pliny ascribes to deep wells
similar power of rendering visible the
stars, the light of which would otherwise
be lost in the overpowerfng spiendor OF the
solar rays.
The tradition, well founded or not. has
often been adopted for literary effect. 1t
seems almost sacrilegious to hint that no
star known to astronomers couid nave
shone down increasingly upon poor Ste
phen Blackpool during his seven Gays ana
nights of agony at the bottom or the Oid
Hell shaft: that at the best he could only
have caught glimpse of 1t for rev min
lltes in each twenty-four hours as II passed
across the zenith. Dickens, indeed, does
not absolutely say that Stephen watched
the star by daylight. It is only natural
inference from his description; but Kip
ping adopts the tradition in its EXTREMIST
form when he writes Of
THE gorge that shows the stars at noon
day clear
But is the tradition true? OF course.
every one knows that Venus from time to
time may be seen even at high noon: but
then Venus at her brightest is many times
over brighter than Sirius. Then. again.
the assistance of a telescope enables the
brighter stars to be discerned at midday
but the telescope not only directs the eye
and greatly limits the area from which
the skylight reaches the observer, but it
enormously Increases the brightness of the
ST. Ya1a Two tn hat Civ he
naked eye observation of true stars in full
sunlight stands in quite a different cate
CORY.
Humboldt, who was much interested in
the question. repeatedly tried the expert
ment, both in Siberia and in America and
not only failed himself ever to detect a
star, but never came across any one who
had succeeded Much more recently an
American astronomer set up a tube for the
express purpose of seeing the Pleiades by
daylight. also with effect. 1t has been
supposed that Flamsteed. the first astrono-
mer royal, sank We'll at GHeenwich ObSer-
vatory for the purpose of observing Gamma
!Draconis. the zenith star of Greenwich, in
this manner
The existence of the we'll is undoubted
though Sir George Airy, the late astron-
omer royal, was unable to find it. but
f'lamsteed marks it on more than one of
his plans of the observatory, and there is
drawing eXtant of the well ITSELF show
ing the spiral staircase that ran down it.
But its purpose seems to have been, not
to have furnished the means of observing
the star with the naked eye, but to enable
the observer to measure as accurately as
possible the distance of the star from the
true zenith at the moment of transit.
Sir John HerSchel mentions case which
he considers as satisfactory evidence, of
an optcian who stated that the earliest
circumstance that drew his attention to
astronomy was the regular appearance at
a certain hour for several successive days,
! of a considerable star through the shaft of
chimney This, 1t will ne noticed, Is
secondhand evidence ] have never been
able to obtain evidence even direct as
this myself, though l have met several per-
sens who felt quite confident that they had
seen stars by daylight on looking up the
shaft of a mine. or that some one had told
them he 90