The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-11-19
THE STARS BY DAYLIGHT.
Tradition That They May Be Seen
from Bottom of Shaft.

Are the stars visible to ordinary sight
in the daytime2 There is a widespread
tradition that they are; that if an OBJ
server places himself at the bottom OF
any deep shaft-as of a mine, a well,
or a factory chimney-which may shut
off scattered light and reduce the area
of sky illumination acting on the retina.
he will be able to discern the brighter
stars without difficulty The tradition IS
one of respectable antiquity, for Aris-
totle refers to persons seeing stars in
daylight when looking out from caverns
Of Subterranean reservoirs, and Pliny
ascribes to deep wells similar power of
rendering visible the stars, the light of
which would otherwise be lost in the
overpowering splendor 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 could
nave shone down increasingly upon poor
Stephen Blackpool during his seven days
and nights of agony at the bottom of
the Old Hell shaft; that at the best he
could only have caught a glimpse of it
for a few minutes in each twenty-four
hours as it passed across the zenith
Dickens, indeed, does not absolutely say
that Stephen watched the star by day
light 1t is only a natural inference
from his description; but Kipling adopts
the tradition in its EXTREMIST form when
he writes Of
THE gorge that shows the stars at
monday clear
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 en-
ables the brighter stars to be discerned
at midday; but the telescope not only
directs the eye and greatly limits the
area from which the slxylight reaches
the observer, but it enormously in
creases the brightness of the star rela-
tive to that sky illumination. The naked
eye observation Of true stars in full sun
light stands in quite a different cate
CORY.
Humboldt, who was much interested
IN the question, repeatedly tried the ex-
pertinent, both in Siberia and in Amer
lea, 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 no
eject. 1t has been supposed that
sank well at Greenwich observatory
for the purpose of observing Gamma
Dracon1s, the zenith star of Greenwich,
| in this manner.
The existence of the well is undoubt-
ed, though Sir George Airy, the late
astronomer royal was unable to find it,
but Flamsteed marks it on more than
one of his plans of the observatory,
and there is a drawing extant of the
well itself, showing the spiral staircase
that ran down it But its purpose seems
to nave 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 a case
which he considers as satisfactory evil
rdence, of an optician who stated that
| the earliest circumstance that drew his
attention to astronomy was the reg
ular appearance at a certain hour fof
several successive days, of a consider
able star through the shaft of a chin
ney.'' This, it will be noticed. is sec
ond-hand evidence. 1 have never beer
able to obtain evidence even so direct
as this myself, though 1 have met sew.
| eral persons who felt quite confident
that they had seen stars by daylight or
looking up the shaft of a mine, or tina;
some one had told them he had done
so-"-From knowledge