The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1903-03-28

- In Aid 5Oo, 100000 stars Have
Been Made vIsfble-W0ndeW
Yet I'm store.


1t has just been announced by one
of the ablest modern astronomers that
long exposure survey of the whole
heavens with the modern Photographic
telescope would show no fewer than
5O0,000,O 900 stars.
The writer. reports the New York
World, says that in the southern sky
he has counted $500 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 viii
show 100000 stars, and with the grea:
Yerkes Telescope about 200,000,000 are
visible. If photograph would show
100000, 600 stars, the question arises;
-"Where does finality come imp" The
writer answers this very interesting
question thus:
'.As we go on constructing larger and
yet 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.
"We may only be making visible the
frontier realms of an infinite domain,
the hinterland of which is 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?
''If the universe is infinite in extent
and the stars infinite in number. then
in telescope of a certain size we
ought to see definite number of stars.
Do we see this number?
snow, 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 ofstars. 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
"The same remarkable result is
reached il 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 regis
tered on the Photographic plate.
Indeed. we sometimes reach limit,
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.
The telescope carries the assrono.
mer through the stellardistances right
on to the region wfieye the stars thin
out on the margin of the great ocean
of space that surrounds the universe
like garment, From what he sees he
is able to estimate all he could possibly
see. The part visible is to him GER
tain measure of the whole.
"And that whole--how vast, how stu
pendous! The most modest estimate
gives 1000, O00, O0OO as the total number
If stars in the UNIVERSE 00. 900 900!
IF this be so-and the result is ar.
rived at by 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 al
large as our own may break the mo-
notony of that shoreless sea; islands
and isletsthat are visible in our largest
telescopes as faint wisps and whorls OF
misty light, specks against the dark
ness. S4f
s'After all, the number of universes
NAV be as countless and diverse as the
stars There is nothing unreasonable
in such thought"
At any rate the recent Improvement,
in astronomical photography afford al
interesting object lesson in the insig
| nificance the earth. M