The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-08-30
THE STARS BY DAYLIGHT
Tradition That They May Be See,
From Bottom Of Shat

Tradition That They May Be See,
From Bottom of Shaft.
Are the stars visible to ondinar
sight in the daytime? There is vida
spread tradition that they are; that Il
an observer places himself at the boz.
tom Of any deep shaft-as of mine
well or factory chimney-which ma,
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 an.
dQuity, for Aristotle refers to persons
seeing stars in daylight when looking
out from caverns of subterranean
reservoirs, and Pliny ascribes to deep
wells a similar power of rendering
visible the stars, the light of which
would otherwise be lost In the over
towering 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 have shone down increasingly up
on poor Stephen Blackpool during bis
seven days and nights of agony at the
bottom Of the Old He'll shaft; that at
the best he could only have caught
glimpse of it for few minutes in eaci
twenty-four hours as it passed across
the zenith. Dickens, indeed, does not
absolutely say that Stephen watched
the star by daylight. 1t is only a
natural inference from his description
but Kipling adopts the tradition in Ito
EXTREMIST form when he writes Of
The gorge that shows the stars at noon
day clear.
But is the tradition true? OF course
every one knows that Venus from time
to time may be seen even at high noon
but then Venus at her brightest
many times over brighter than Sirius
Then, again, the assistance Of tel
scope enables the brighter stars to-
discerned at midday, but the telescope
not only directs the eye and greatV
limits the area from which the SKY
light reaches the observer, but 1t enor
mously increases the brightness OF zoe
star relative to that sky illumination
The naked eye observation Of true s1a"
In full sunlight stands in quite diner
ent category. Il
Humboldt, who was much interest,"
ed in the question, repeatedly trieo tas
experiment, both in Siberia ana ~
America, and not only failed nlmSe''
ever to detect a star, but never can'
across any one who had succeeoeu
Much more recently an American d
tronomer set up tube for tne e.
press purpose Of seeing the Pielao,.
by daylight, also with no enec.
has been supposed that Flamsteeo, Nv
first astronomer royal, sank wei
Greenwich observatory for the purpUss
of observing Gamma DraconiS' ~
zenith star of Greenwich, In this nD''
ner. -.
The existence of the well is undoups
ed, though Sir George Airy, the s lSS
astronomer royal, was unable " -.
it, but Flamsteed marks 1t OIL Nv. ..
than one of his plans Of the oOse. .,,
tory, and there is drawing eA ,.,
of the we'll itself, showing tne 'p \,
staircase that ran down It bu. :,
purpose seems to have been Nv. .r.
have furnished the means Oh o0' m,
ing the star with the naked e'" a,
to enable the observer to measure
accurately as possible, the dis1an., n,
the star from the true zenllp ~
moment Of transit css
Sir John Herschel mentions al
which he considers as satisfactory M. nd
dence, of an optician who sta..a o,r hy
the earliest circumstance that o,. ~
attention to astronomy was ~ ~. te
ular appearance at a certain wv, ",nda
several successive days OF . rs
cradle star through the sna. ..od 4
chimney" This, it will be no.A uere
second hand evidence. l nav .rsn y
been able to obtain evidence = have
direct as this myself, though -. cor
met several persons who felt qrs day
tldent that they had seen stals Of
light on looking up the sna "a the9
mine, or that "some one nau
he had done so."-Knowledee'