Newport weekly independent., 1903-02-06
PHOTOGkAPhIC TELESCOPE.
SI Ita AId 5OO.OOO,OOO stars Have been Made Nisible-W Wonderu
 Yet in Store

It mas just been announced by one or the ablest modern astronomers that long exposure survey of the whole heavens with the modern photographic telescope would show no fewer than OO,0O0,O00 stars.
 The writer. reports the New York World, says that in the southern sky ne has counted $500 stars, distinctly visible to the naked eve, which shows there are about 10000 stars in he whole heavens which can be seen by the eve alone An ordinary opera glass will snow 100000 stars. and with the great 1crkes telescope about POO. 1000, ,OOO are visible. If photograph would show ooo'Goo0O0 stars, the question arises: Where does tinality come in?" The writer answers this very interesting question thus:
 As We go on constructing larger ind 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 a region SO vast that no human invention can fathom it, and no human intellect can measure or cOmprenend it.
 This does not at all follow. It is true that the larger the telescope the greater the number of stars made vis- lble by it. but the question is, does the number seen increase in the same pro- portlCn 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 certain size we ought to see definite number of stars. Do We see this number?
 "Now. the answer to this question is that the number of stars we GO see in a 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 telescopic power brings our vision nearer and nearer to the outer fringe of our finite universe.
 The 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 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.
 "Ihe telescope carries the astrono- mer through the stellar distances right on to the region where 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 cer- tain measure of the whole.
 And that whOle-how vast, how stu pendous! The most modest estimate SlNeS l,OUU.UOU,UJOU as the tOta mum per- of stars in the universe-1. .OOO, ,OOO, 900.
 "lf 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 flores hores of that vast. inviolate. untroubled sea of empty space that girds our realm of stars
 Empty space! It may not be empty. Here and there island universes as large as our own may break the mo- notony of that shoreless sea; islands and islets that are visible in our largest telescopes as faint wisps and whorls 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 unreas ona ble in such thought"
 At any rate the recent mprovements in astronomical photography afford an interesting object lesson in the insg- nificance the earth.
 Providence and Prizes.