River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1903-02-19
PHOTOGRAPHIC TELESCOPE.
By It's Aid 500, 100000 stars Have
Been Made VisibIe-WonderH
Yet in store.

It Las just been announced by one
of the ablest modern astronomers that
long exposure survey of the whole
heavens with the modern photograp
telescope would show no fewer than
| 5OO,O0O,O00 stars.
The writer, reports the New York
World, says that in the southern sky
he has counted 5000 stars, distinctly
visible to the naked eye, which shows
there are about 10000 stars in the whole
| heavens which can be seen by the eye
alone. An ordinary opera glass will
show 100000 stars, and with the great
Yerkes telescope about 20O,OOOO00 are
visible If a photograph would show
| 500 900, 600 stars, the question arises:
"Where does finality come in?" The
writer answers this very interesting
question thus:
'As we go on constructing larger and
vet larger telescopes, more and yet
more stars will appear. Each remove
we are only seeing further and further
down the great endless galleries of
space. and the goal of our desire is as
| far off as ever.
eve may only be making visible the
! frontier realms of an infinite domain,
| the hinterland of which is a region SO
vast that no human invention can
| fathom it, and no human intellect can
measure or comprehend it.
"This does not at all follow 1t is
| true that the larger the telescope the
| greater the number of stars made Wis
| ible by it, but the question is, does the
number seen increase in the same pro-
portion as the size of the telescope
would lead us to expect?
eff the universe is infinite in extent
and the stars infinite in number, then
in a telescope of a certain size we
ought to see a definite number Of stars.
Do we see this number?
''Now. the answer to this question is
that the number Of stars we do see in
very large telescope falls far short OF
the number we ought to see, on the as
sumption that there is no limit to the
number of stars, but on the other hand,
the number seen is quite in keeping
with the contention that each increase
of telescope power brings our vision
nearer and nearer to the outer fringe
| of our finite universe.
! 'EThe same remarkable result Is
reached if we consider the recent pho
tographic research in this direction.
| AS we increase the length of the ex-
posture we do not obtain an equivalent
increase in the number Of stars re gis-
tered on the Photographic plate.
| nh
| different, of course for different parts
of the sky, beyond which we cease to
! photograph any more stars, however
long the exposure. We have, in short,
photographed all there is to photo
graph. I
"The telescope carries the a6trono-
mer through the stellar distances right
on to the region wheSe the stars thin
out on the margin Of the great ocean
! of space that surrounds the universe
| like a garment. From what he sees he
| is able to estimate all he could possibly
see The part visible is to him a GER
| tain measure of the whole.
"And that whole-how vast, how stu
| pendous! The most modest estimate
| gives 900, 100000 as the total number
of stars in the universe, 100000 600!
eff this be so-and the result is ar
rived at by a variety of ways-then a
telescope ten feet in diameter will
bring us to the foreshores of that vast.
| inviolate, untroubled sea of empty
| space that girds our realm of stars.
empty space! 1t may not be empty.
Here and there island universes as
| large as our own may break the mo-
not0ny of that shoreless' sea; islands
| and islets that are visible in our largest
! telescopes as faint wisps and whOrIs of
misty light, specks against the dark
ness.
"After all, the number Of universes
may be as countless and diverse as the
| stars. There is nothing unreasonable
in such thought"
At any rate the recent improvements
in astronomical photography afford an
interesting object lesson in the insig-
nificance the earth.
| SILENTLY S0TTET CHED