The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1911-10-13
DISTANCE or THE STARS.
tie~ Astronomers Set About the Tass
Of MeasLrina Il.


With the excer~ion Of hundred
stars az mist, we know nothing of
ne distances Of the individual stars.
What Is the cause OF this state Of
things lt i owing to the fact that
we lave tive ewes that we are en-
abLed not only 70 perceive the d.
recAon in Which external objects
are situated. but to get an idea Of
their distance - locaiize them in
space. But th.s power is rather linn
tied. For distances exceeding some
hundreds Of yards il utterly fails
The reason is that tine distance be-
tween the eyes as compared with
the distance to he graduated be-
comes too small Instruments have
been devised bY which the distance
between the ewes Is, ns it were, arti-
fcially increased With a good in
strument Of this sort distances of
several miles may be eyaluated. For
still greater distances we may nm
agine each eye replaced by photo
graphic plate. Even this would be
quite sufficient for enc Of the heav-
oaly bodies-yiz, for the moon.
At one and the same moment let
a Photograph of the moon and the
surrounding stars be taken both at
the Cape observatory and at the
Royal observatory at Greenwich
Placing the two photographs side by
side in the stereoscope, We shall
clearly sec the moon changing in
space" and may evsluate its dis
tance.
But for the sun and the nearest
planets. our next neighbo-s IN the
universe after the moon, the diff
Guilty reconlmences.
The reason Is that any avaiMble
distance on the earth, taken as eye
distance, is rather small for the
purpose. However, owing to in
credible perseverance and skill Of
several observers and BY s9bstItut-
ing the most refined measurement
for stereoscopic examination, as
tronomers have succeeded in over
coming the difficulty for the sun. I
think we NAV say that at present
we know Its distance to within q
thCusandth part Of its amount
Knowing the suns distance, we get
that Of all the planets by a well
known relation existing between the
planetary distances.
But now for the fixed stars,
which must be hundreds Of thou
sands Of times farther removed than
the sun. There evidently can be no
question Of any sufficient eve dis
tancc On our earth. Meanwhile our
success with the sIn has provided
US with a aev one distance. 1000
times greater than any possible eve
distance On the earth, for now that
we know the distance at which the
earth travels in its orbit around the
sun We can take the diameter Of its
o-h's as our eve distance. Photo
G. Is taken at periods six months
L' will represent the stellar
vor as seen from points the dis
ta between which is already best
car sed in,the time il would take
lirhi 20 traverse 1t. The time would
be 0.it sixteen minutes.
i ever, even this distance, I'm
rlcn r rs y is, is on the whole, in
sdCQ IKE Or obtaining a stereo-
scope ve u the stars. IL is only
in quite ey.cntional cases that pho
tosrl.h large scale-that il,
obtaincf a aid II big tele-
rnc- f r1t stcreoscopic ef-
fcct for fvci stars BY accurate
mca r-~ tne photos we may
rerhzr acw.it hcyond what
we can s.-o.u it~ simple stcr eoscopic
insrg Ton oat. as we said a mo-
nent auo. t.oaamcrs have not sue
ccclci IN this way in determining
the 81 .. ~ more ;han hun
lrci star. s'l.-Scicnsiic Ameri-
cam.