The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-24

Cambridge, Mass, Aug. 23.-The
Harvard College Observatory discov-
cred, not long ago, another member of
the numerous family of asteroids, or
little planets, whose eccentric doings
in the armament make them virtually
the freaks of modern astronomy. The
first remarkable thing about this par
far to the south, where no asteroid
was at that time expected. The pho
tograph was taken from the Southern
station of the Harvard Observatory
at Arequipa, Peru. When the plate
was examined at Cambridge, prepar-
atory to being filed and catalogued
with the other plates, now over 100000
in number, already accumulated in the
observatory archives, the little aster-
old was plainly visible among the
hundreds of stars photographed at the
same time. Being in more rapid mo-
ton than the stars it had made a
short line on the plate while the stars
simply appeared as dots.
Prof. Simon Newcomb, well known
10 all persons lHLSIt5l6Q III
for his work on the American Nautical
Almanac. was visiting in Cambridge
and undertook to compute the orbit
of the new asteroid. 1t was found
to have a greater ellipticity than any
other known planet and to approach
closer to the sun. Moving as If around
the longer circumference of great
football it's distances from the sun
vary III a single revolution more than
those of any other member of Its
wandering family. But for this fact,
however the discovery would have ex-
cIled little interest. for astronomers
have already more asteroids to take
care of than are altogether welcome.
Within the last century som ething
over 500 of them have been discovered
and one German observatory devotes
itself entirely to looking after them.
The asteroids have proved Of con-
siderable value in measuring the dis
lance from the earth to the SUM- but,
as one astronomer has said, two or
three asteroids of just the right kind
would be worth more than the whole
500. Their peculiarities prove, indeed,
that the laws of the celestial universe
are quite as complicated as those of
terrestrial nature, but the knowledge
is, as yet, more interesting than prac-
tically valuable to astronomical study
Meantime they greatly COInpllcate the
routine business of such an observa
tory as that at Harvard, which is de-
voted to the task of keeping a pho
tographic record year by year of all
the stars known to astronomy. If 1t
were not for the German observatory
that takes special care of them they
would often prove an actual nuisance.
Suppose, for example we imagine the
armament to be a vast field contain
ing countless sheep moving in a regu-
larly ordained manner about pole
in the center. The pole is the Pole
Star; some Of the sheep are tenants,
others are stars, still others are aste-
roids; and Photographic astronomy Is
the shepherd. Now, the shepherd Is
so well acquainted with the move
ments OF the planet and star sheep
that he always knows in what part
Of the field 70 look for them at any
particular moment, but the asteroid
sheep are wanderers. The shepherd.
looking az the condition OF his charges
n any given part Of the field, Is ike
~ 20 find among them a new arrival
and the question must Immediately be
answered. II this an actual addition
Of the flock Or an old asteroid sheep 4?
IL the Armament we're really a Fat