Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-04-08

"When the new telescope of the
Carnegie Solar Observatory on Mount
Wilson is completed it will bring me
moon within twenty-nine miles Oh the
earth" said Donald =. Beard, Kansas
CITY astronomer, in a talk to the kel-
vim Klub of Central High School re-
Gently. 1.-THE telescope is the largest
in the world, having a diameter OF
100 inches, or s 1-3 feet.
"The vast problem of stellar eVo-
luton will be attacked with the Mount
Wilson telescope and many epoch-
making discoveries are in store Tor
the corps of scientists, equipped with
acknowledgements, bolometerS ana q
battery of most delicate instruments.
"Rnt IL is the purpose of this talk
to consider the bearing on the moon
and certain problems of her physical
constitution which this great new tel
escope will have. The pellucid air
above Mount Wilson will permit the
use of far-higher powers than are
possible with instruments such as the
forty-inch Yerlles refracting telescope
at williams Bay. Wis, for instance,
whose diameter is only tWo-tifthS or
that of the Mount Wilson reflector.
The astronomers on Mount Wilson
could perhaps use an eyepiece magni-
fving 5000 diameterS, which should
bring. the moon, on the basis OF her
average distance of 23S,O00 miles,
within apparently twenty-nine miles.
Imagine the distinctness with
which the minutest details of crater,
ray rill and mountain escarpment
would appear to the observer at the
evepiece. The flood of lunar light, in
tensified 5000 times, would be un-
bearably brilliant; but an almost
microscopical shift of the instrument
would throw the entire moon (only a
small portion of whose illuminated
surface would be in the field clean
| out of sight.
1.-The lunar Apprentices, then, with a
mower such as | have described, would
appear about like the Rocky noun
! tain range at a height of only thirty
miles above the earth; but since there
| is no water or atmosphere upon the
/ moon the geological agencies that
/ modify the contours of eartly noun
| tains are absent, together with any
/ forms of vegetable life. 1t is true
| that astronomers have ascribed a
| certain increasing and diminishing
greenish tint to certain lunar ''maria"
! or so-called sea beds" such as the
| Mare Serenitatis and the Mare HUI
morris, but all such suspected varia-
! tions or color changes are unsub-
stautiated.
IF by any conceivable means per-
son from the earth were able to
transport himself to the surface of
our satellite. a scene of indescribable
| loneliness and desolation would sur
round him.. All of the phenomena of
night and day that we are familiar
with on earth would be entirely al
tered on the moon. The atmosphere
| that envelops the earth diffuses and
| spreads abroad blindingly the light
| of the sun and stars, so that in the
daytime the stars are invisible; but
ON the moon all this obscuring veil of
atmosphere would be absent, and all
| the stars we see on the darkest win
| ter night, as well as an additional
multitude that we never see here,
would glow brilliantly and untwink-
| ingly in the lunar heavens.
! And the sun, seen In all its clarity
| for the first time, would be globe of
| incompatible Wilderness. even perhaps
tinged with a certain biueness. like an
arc light seen from distance. The