Los Angeles herald., 1910-05-02
ASTRONOMERS TO
HOLD MEETING ON
MOUNT WILSON
Savants from All Over the World
Will Be Here Next
Summer
COME TO RUBBER AT OLD SOL
Conference to Be Most important
Astronomical Gathering Ever
Held in America
COME TO RUBBER AT OLD SOL
81 T1ooNoMER5 from ali over tine

i OIIIOINOMEn from all over lho
u world. members of the Interna-
IN tional Association for Solar Re-
search, will meet at the Mount Wilson
observatory next summer to discuss
the results of recent studies of the
day star and to plan future observa-
tIons. The meeting will be the fourth
ever held by the association, and the
second to be held in America. 1t Will
bring here the most distinguished con-
course of astronomers ever gathered
within the United States, and 1t will
be by far the most important astro-
nomical gathering of recent years.
The international associations first
congress was held in st. Louis in 1904,
the second at oxford in 1905 and the
third and last at the Observatory OF
Meudon in 1907. The congress at
Mount Wilson will convene August ~.
and will remain in session for several
days, If not weeks, no time limit haV-
ing been set.
Formal invitations to the gathering
were sent out from the Mount wilson
observatory several months ago, under
the authority of the International as
sociation's executive committee. Re-
sponses to these invitations have been
very generally favorable, and 1t Is
already certain, say observatory Of
ficials, that the meeting will prove the
most important ever held in TINS
country. Nor is the reason for this
far to seek. The Mount Wilson OBJ
seryatory is admittedly the best
equipped in the world for solar OBJ
servation. In itself 1t is strong at
traction for men who study the
heavens.
WILL COME FROM AFFAIR
Practically every university in the
United States will be represented at
the meeting, while delegates VIII also
be In attendance from all the I'M
portant universities and observatories
of the old world. Prominent among
the European savants who Will come
here will be Professor Hartmann,
director of the observatory at Got
tingen, Germany: Professor kayser OK
Bonn and Sir David Gill, Tor many
years astronomer royal at the Cape
OF Good Hope.
The problems to be discussed by
this congress are primarily solar prob
lens, which are, in reality, problems
of physics: and at Mount Wilson visit
ing astronomers win find an equip
ment as perfect as modern science can
make 1t to aid them In their research.
The observatory itself, under the
direction of Prof. G.. E. Hale, is, as
is well known, an annex of the car
negie institute at Washington. Pro-
fessor Hale, by the way, Is now on
his way home from the east, where
he went on business connected with
the coming meeting.
above sea level. Arrived there, the
astronomer Is at once on the earth
and in the sky. On one side he has
under his gaze terrestrial nature in its
most varied aspects-hrst, the noun
tain, then In the distance the immense
azure sea extending as far as the eye
can reach. over all the silent move
ment of the stars. Below him Is tho
life of two cities-Pasadena and Los
Anseles-Which seem at night to be
group of stars glowing with Drlght
light above them the serene, tranquil
sublimity of the celestial world. AT
: that altitude the atmosphere is trans
parent, free from heavy vapors ana
clouds of dust.
INSTRUMENTS OF GREAT VALUE
The astronomers will find on these
heights, dominating the fogs of the
plain, an establishment fitted with all
The desirable instruments for the spe-
cial studies which are carried on there.
Among them are, notably, several large
refiectors. The most important of these
instruments is a horizontal telescope
of 60em. aperture and focal length
OF luClcA0B 0uO W SAAS
ficence of a benefactress of science.
Miss Snow OF Chicago. 1t receives the
rays emitted by the heavenly bodies
by means of a coelostat, composed or
two plane mirrors of 76cm. and 6Ocm.
diameter. A spectrograph of 5m. 50cm.
focus or a spectroheliograph or I'm.
50cm. can be adapted to it.
A well known astronomer and writer
who is greatly interested in the con-
gress said yesterday:
QUESTIONS OF VITAL INTEREST
'The program OF the approaching
session includes, naturally, the discus
sion of all the questions awakened by
the solar problem. Every manifesta-
tion of terrestrial life derives its en-
ergy from the sun. 1t is thus a mat
ter of urgent necessity 70 discover the
amount of such energy cast on the
earth at each instant by the radiant
king of the day sky. This amount was
at one time considered to be invariable,
and for that very reason 1t was deS-
ignated as the solar constant'-a term
which is incorrect, as the radiation
varies from year to year, even from
day to day, as is shown by the per-
petual changes In the aspect of the
suns disk, the number and dimensions
of it's spots, its faculae and its pro-
tuberances. For more than a century
studies of this nature have been pur-
sued by means of two instruments
the actinometer and the pyrhehometer.
"Agaln, one of the most captivating
questions at the present time Is that
of the force of repulsion of the sun,
which gives birth to the tails of the
comets. Is 1t produced by the pressure
OF light. according to the theory of
Arrhenius, or is 1t of electric origin
cathodic or other rays? In any case
II seems evident that electricity plays
a great role in this phenomenon, under
whatever form this activity may be
found to appear. The recent discovery
bv Messrs. Hale and Deslandres of
magnetic field in the whirlwinds of
the chromosphere is, from this point
of ,,inw of the highest importance"