The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-04-27
LOOKING THROUGH
LICK TELESCOPE
Earth Then Shows It's True
Dimensions
SUN QUITE YOUTHFUL
Nebulae Number Untold Hundreds of
Thousands-Heayenly Bodies
Are Born, Live and Die
Problems Cited
SUN QUITE YOUTHFUL


From the New York Evening Post
The particular universe OF stars In
which we dwell is half again as large in
scale as the world has been supposing.
Our own sun is still youthful. and keeps
travelling northwardly through space at
the comparatively leisurely pace of u
miles per second, or only two-thirds the
average speed OF stars of its own class.
The North star is not really single
star, but triple. consisting of three suns,
revolving about a common centre.
These are some of the recent discov-
cries of the Lick observatory. the IA
nous graduate astronomical department
of the University of California.
People who learned their astronomy
% years ago or five years ago, will have
to change many of their ideas of the
universe in the light of the Lick observa
tory's newly achieved knowledge as to
how the heavenly bodies are born and
live and die. Nowhere in the world is
SO much being done to alter and expand
mans knowledge of the stellar universe
as on Mount Hamilton. under the direc
director of the Lick observatory.
When DIR. Campbell first came to the
Lick observatory, comparatively few
double stars we're known. He turned the
great 36-inch telescope, then the largest
in the world, upon this problem, and
in the years since then, the Lick obser
yatory has discovered over 1000 double
stars BY the eye at the telescope it
was proved that one out OF is stars, on
the average, is double.
But next the Lick observatory proved
that vast numbers of stars which, even
to the most powerful telescopes look like
one, are really double, or even triple or
ouadruple. Work with the spectroscope
showed that at least one star In every
four is double. The first magnitude star
Capela, for instance. consists OF two
stars nearly equal in brightness, which
revolve around their common centre of
mass every 1Of days.
Only $4,000 Nebula Observed
Only some 15,000 nebulae have been
observed as yet, but the Lick observa-
tory has proved that several hundred
thousand nehulae visible to the telescope
or the camera exist in the sky, waiting
to be discovered whenever opportunity
can be found to undertake the work.
Most nebulae have q spiral form. This
discovery was wholly unexpected. 1t
proves their rotation.
Three extra moons have been found for
Jupiter by the Lick observatory, the
planets sixth, seventh and eighth satel-
lites having been discovered in 1892, 1904
and 1906.
Some 80 comets have been discovered
| by the Lick observatory.
1t has been shown that the principal
new stars" which now and then blaze
UP in the heavens, only to fade dim aft
erward, have been converted into nebu-
lac, and that the nebular stage passes
| later, in the course of many years, to
| the ordinary stellar condition.
| Total eclipses of the sun have been OBJ
served by expeditions sent by the Lick
| observatory to many parts of the world
to French Guiana, for instance; to
| Northern California, to Chill, India
| Georgia, Sumatra, Spain and Egypt, and
| to the South Pacific The Hearst expedi-
| tion to Chill in 1893 and the Crocker
expedition to India in 1898 recorded for
| the first time the wonderful structure of
| the inner solar corona, and the. numer-
Gus expeditions sent out by the gener-
osity of Regent William III. Crocker have
| established that the light of the inner
| coronal structure is largely inherent,
whereas the light of the outer parts of
| the corona is largely reflected sunlight.
| One of the greatest contributions to
| cosmology that the Lick observatory has
| made is Director Campbells proof by
| Photographic observations that stars in
| the earlier stages of their existence are
travelling slowly through space and that
| their speeds increase as they grow older.
| This Fastening of space as suns increase
| in age had not been suspected. and is
highly important in interpretations OF
| the life of the universe.
Problems of Astronomers
Among the problems which the astrono-
mers of the Lick observatory keep al
ways before them, In their task of push
| ing forward the frontiers of human
knowledge, are these: What Is the form
and what are the Dimensions of the
| space occupied by our stellar system ?
| How are the individual members of the
system distributed throughout that
| space? What are the relations of the
| stars planets, moons, nebulae, comets
and meteors to each other, both as
| classes and as individuals? In accord
ance with what laws have these bodies
been evolved from materials in earlier
| stages of existence? What has been the
! history of the celestial bodies? What
| are their present physical conditions?
| What has the future in store for them
| Besides the great station on Mount
| Hamilton the university has an outpost
OF the Lick observatory in South Amer
! lea. This is the d. o. Mills observatory,
supported by the generosity of Ogden