The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1910-02-03

of stars.
One of the assistant astronomers at the
observatory, Mr.. 9. A. Hill, devotes his
attention to watching and recording the
apparent shifting of. the stars as the earth
moves around tht sun. Another, Mr.. G.
H. Peters, looks for asteroids" or minor
planets, through photo telescope, TAX
ing snapshots of them when he comes
across them. With another instrument
he makes photograph of the sun every
day in the year, thus making a record
of sun spots, their appearance and their
changes. This is matter of no small
Importance, inasmuch as the sun practic-
ally controls the weather on the earth.
A sun spot means an outburst of fiery
activity on the surface of the solar orb,
which is likely to have its effects upon
temperature and other meterologic condi-
tions on the terrestrial planet.
1t is OF great interest, too, TO study
the sun as a star. OF all the bilious of
stars that go to make up our universe,
only Gre is near enough to permit us to
examine it in detail. We call it the sun
Though it is not really very big-in fact,
an orb of only the fifth magnitude in the
Milky Way-it seems to US, quite natur-
ally, the center of creation. Notwith-
standing its small size, it is pretty
fair sample of star, and by observation
oft great deal is to be learned about
/ other, and vastly more distant stellar
luminaries.
We know of about seven hundred
planets that revolve around the sun. But
only eight of them, including the EARTH
are of much size. The rest are mere
toy worlds, the biggest of them, called
Ceres, being only ass miles in diameter,
with surface area three times as great
as that of Texas. These baby sisters of
the earth, indeed, might be said to equal
in area various States of the Union, from
Rhode Island to some of the larger ones.
4 Probably there are multitudes of such
tiny worlds scattered through the void
of space. The earth weighs 200 timts as
| much as all the known minor planets put
together. 1t seems not unlikely that the
solar system, to which we belong, picks
them up now and then as it proceeds on
its tremendous journey in the direction
of the constellation Hercues BY OBJ
serving the extent to which they are
pued out of their orbits by the earth,
Mars Venus and other major planets, it
is possible to weigh the latter with great.
er accuracy than in any other way.
Speaking of major planets, however,
it seems conceited on our part to regard
ourselves as in the same class with those
huge orbs, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and
Neptune. Uranus, for instance, is sixty
times as big as the earth, and its year
is as long as eighty-four of our years.
The sun, as viewed from Uranus, rises in
the west and sets in the east,as do like
wise its four moons. But we have the
advantage of it when sunshine is con-
sidered, by reason of its enormously
greater distance from the solar luminary
Beheld from Uranus, the sun looks only
one four-hundredths as large as it does
to us-though it has about the brightness
of 1900 of our moons, and so gives light
enough to see by very comfortably. As
for warmth, it matters not, because
Uranus is red-hot.
By no means the least important func-
tionary of the Naval Observatory is
Everett Hayden, who is not professor,
ometers and the time service, by which
but plain commander in the naval chron-
ometers and the time service, by which
at exactly noon every day, a signal is
sent out over the telegraph wires to all
parts of the country, setting the electric
clocks in every city, and dropping time
balls at the principal seaports. Five min
utes before II o'clock, the telegraph COM
panies stop all business, and throw open
every circuit, SO that the electric impulse
is instantaneously TRANSMITTED to every
town in the United States and by wireless |
to vessels all along the coast
Commander Hayden, when he was a
very young man, in 1888, took part in
an exploring, expedition along the sum-
mits of the Cascade Range in California |
and up into Oregon. With Mr.. Diller of |
the United States Geological Survey, he
assembled the precipitous cliffs which en-
circle Crater Lake, and on that remark
able body of water the two men set ahoat |
the first craft ever navigated there-a
raft composed of logs, which they had
thrown down from above, and which they
fastened together with halter straps. BY
this MEANS at some risk, they made their