The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1910-02-03
ABOUT UNCLE SANS STAR GAZ.
ERS WHO MAKE A SPECIALITY
OF MOONS.
Washington, Feb. I, 1870.

Mr.. Taft says that the head of the Ma
val Observatory at Washington ought to
be great astronomer-an eminent sci
entifc man, who should attract attention
to the institution now and then by put
ting salt on the tail of new comet, or
giving an extra twist to one of the spiral
nebulae The present chief of the estab-
lishment Capt. T. E. De Witt Veeder, who
is a very able officer of the navy, can not
reasonably be expected to do such spec
tacular stunts" as those
Even as now organized, however, the
observatory is doing a deal of valuable
work. 1t has a staff of expert stargazers
who hold rank as naval officers, though
they never go to sea. They are called
Professor and not by an ordinary serv-
ice title. Thus, for example, Prof. Milton
UpdegraH ranks as a commander in the
navy, and his business at the present time
is 10 keep tab on fixed stars.
The observatory is manly occupied in
1t is a somewhat considerable task, and
work of the kind is not undertaken any
where else in this country, largely because
it is very laborious, and for the reason
that there is literally no end to it. For
this purpose the chief instrument used is
meridian circle" consisting most i'm
portantly of telescope, through which
the stars are watched as they pass across
| the Washington meridian with the revolu-
ton of the earth. knowledge of the exact
usefulness to navigators and surveyors.
Prof w. S. Eichelberger who is en-
commander in the navy; and another
stargazer who takes part in this branch
of the business is Prof. Frank B. LittelI,
who holds the lesser rank of lieutenant
commander. In charge of the great equa-
torial telescope is Prof. Asph Hall Ga
lieutenant), whose attention is devoted
mainly to our moon, other satellites, and
comets.
some extent in moons. 1t was through
this same equatorial telescope that Prof.
Halls father, Asph ST., discovered the
two moons of Mars more than twenty
years ago. These moons, by the way, are
each about sixty miles in diameter, and
they seem to revolve around the planet in
| opposite directions. But this is only ap-
parent, and not actual, the effect, as tele-
| scopically viewed, being due to the fact
that one of them circles three times as
fast as Mars itself turns,while the other
moves at comparatively slow rate.
| knowledge of the dameters of the or
bits of moons enables the astronomer to
| figure out the masses of the planets about
which they revolve, thus yielding impor-
tant data in relation to our solar system.
1t is big job, this keeping track of
satellites, because there are so many of
them, and they exhibit such curious &C.
centricities. True, Mercury and Venus
possess no moons at all, but Jupiter has
eight, Saturn nine, Uranus four and Nep-
tune one. The biggest of all of them is
| Titan, belonging to Saturn, which has a
diameter of $500 miles. This is enor
mously bigger than our own moon, whose
diameter is only 2I6o miles.
Presumably all these moons are dead,
like ours. 1t is pity we have not some
more of our own, inasmuch as they are
20 interesting Jupiter enjoys the view
of eclipses every day. It's sky is always
full of moons-so that, one might imag
inc, an inebriated gentleman on that
planet, going home at night, would find
things very confusing.
1t is part of Prof Halls work to fol-
low comets with the great equatorial"
This is always interesting though, up to
the present time, nobody has found out
with certainty just what a comet is. A
comet is believed, however, to be an as
semblagt cf particles of star dust, be-
tween which and the sun there is some
sort of electrical action. This action it
is that drives off into space the "taiP'
of the comet which always points away
from the sun. In the course of time the
celestial tramp becomes disintegrated, los
ing so much of It's material as to be no
longer recognized. But whether or not
it was originally a busted" planet, is a
In some of the ancient Pyramids of
Egypt there are tunnels, pointing sky
ward, which were unquestionably de-
signed for astronomical purposes that is
to say, for studying the positions of the
stars 1t is believed that the obelisks
were constructed with like end in view.
Thus it might be considered that Prof.
Updegraff and his fellow-workers at the
Naval Observatory are engaged merely
in continuing the observations which star