The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-04-28

fineSt on earth
In fact | doubt whether you will
find many places that have finer
weather all the year around than
Arequipa. The sky is almost always
blue, ana the sun almost always
shines. At least this has been the
case until lately. The people tell me
there are more clouds in the sky now
than ever before. and understand
that this cloudy condition is so in
creaSing that Harvard University is
seriously considering the remova OF
It's observatory from here TO some
other place
| doubt not, many of you nave |
heard of the Harvard observatory. It
is n OF the most noted astronomical
stations of the whole world. 1t is sit
uated on the slope Of Mount Misti,
JU0 feet above Arequipa, at such a
place that its telescopes have an un-
Instructed view of the heavens. The
institution has a fine plant, and ii IS
with great telescopes. one of
which has a lens two feet in diameter
enabling them to ake photographs on
plates fourteen by seventeen inches in
size. n tube of that instrument
must weigh a ton. but it is so deli
cately hung that a child could move
1t. There are other telescopes for
taking the portraits of the stars and
III III past WV vi liz deCtdeS
these scientists Of Harvard have been
making heavenly records of this
southern hemisphere. They have
taken as many as fifty a night and
thousands a year. The negatives af-
ter having been developed are shipped
to Cambridge, where they are kept on
file for scientific work. There is no
such collection anywhere else and as
tronomers have to go there if they
would make certain classes of study.
There is. I am told. nothing dupli-
Gated in the sky. each half of the
world has its own stars and constel-
iatlOns, and there are some here that
we never see in the north. One Of
these is the southern cross. but it
seems to me that It's beauty has been
greatly exaggerated. There are only
four stars in its and they are so small
that you have to look hard to find
them. They do not compare with
the great dipper. Many of the other
stars are far more brilliant than in
the north. This is so Of the Milky
Way and Of the most of the planets.
| have been on the equator when the
path of a planet on the still waters
of the ocean was almost as well
marked as that OF the MOON: and II
riding at night up the Amazon river
the stars were SO close it seemed az
l though | could almost reach out an6
GRASP them. Another reason for NOV
ing the Harvard observatory is tina
t it's work has resulted in the southern
t heavens having been pretty thorough
t ly studied and mapped and that rea
4 son for its existence he's to some ex
0 tent passed way.
: The story O. the establishment @
y his observatory is interesting. 1t j
now about t%hirty-hve years sine
; Uriah III. Borden died and left 5000,
= 600 to Harvard University, with tt
. understanding that the money was
5 be used to build an observatory a
n the best place upon earth for tn
study of the stars. The college al
e thorities first tried Colorado an
e California, and then came to Sout
America. Their first work was don
back of Lima. at an altitude of abou
that Of Mt. Washington on what
e now called Mt. Harvard; but in 1S9
IS they changed their station to Arequi
pa. The change was made beCaus
this place was thought to have NOR
e clear days and clear nights tina an
/ other locality on earth. Since the
is the astronomers Of the uniVerSit
Is have been working here right alon
and hat not only at the o~bservatoI
is but at the automatic meteorologic
le station hich they have placed c
re the top Of Mt. MiSti.
n Mount MIStI IS I9,Z00 feet h1Sh, an
a this station is said to be the highe
of it's kind in the world. 1t is high
thar any point in America outsit
Alaska, and it is fully a mile high,
1t than our observatory on the top
te Pixies Peak. The site of the static
or is on the edge of a huge crater, viii
"a until lately has been sending o
clouds of yellow sulphurous
c. Thousand feet into the air. The
an clouds have now stopped and 1 a
of told that the volcano has been spi
n, ting out water and steam. No O.
I'll knows what this may pOrtend. T
automatic instruments on the mou
tain are keeping a record of meteor
re Illogical movements and thu Scientis
he visit them at intervals and bring ba'
n. the results. The work Wi
or great regularity, but sometimes I
re mountain is so covered with snow a
ke at other times visited by territ
- r,;,1~ co that fharo NAV now a