The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1918-11-22
DISTANCE OF THE STARS.
Hew Astronomers Set About the Tsss
of Measuring It.

of Measuring IL.
With the exception of q hundre
stars at most, we know nothing O
The distances of the individual star,
What is the cause of this state {
Mngs? 1t is owing to the fact thu
we have two eyes that we are Ell
abled not only To perceive the d
rection in which external oil eel
are situated, but 10 get an i'd, a .
their distance. To localize theld j
space. But this power is rather linz
tied. For distances exceeding so.l
hundreds of wards Il utterly fair
The reason IS that the distance i,
tween the eyes is compared Wi
the distance to De evalaated l..
comes too small. instruments has
been devised by which :he dist :
between the eyes is, as it were, rt
fcially increased. With a good II
strument of this sort distances
several miles may be eva.uated.
still greater distances We may i,
sgine each eve replaced by q pho
graphic pl; e Even this would
quite sul'ir.nnt for one of the bes
emily bodies-viz, for the moon.
At one and the same moment !
a photograph of the moon and
surroundings stars be taken boil
the Cape observatory and at
loyal observatory at Greenw
Placing the Two photographs side
side in the stereoscopc, we s,
clearly seq tie moon Changing
space" and may eyaluate its {
lance.
But for tho sun and the near
planets, our next neighbors in
universe alter the moon, the d
Guilty recommends.
The reason is that any avails
distance on the earth, taken as
distance, is rather small for
purpose. However, owing to
credible perseverance and skill
several observers and by substit
ing the most refined measureme
for stereoscopic examination,
tronomers have succeeded in Owe
coming the difficulty for the sun.
think we may say that at preseu
we know It's distance to within
thousandth part of its amour.
Knowing the suns distance, we &c
that of all the planets by a W.
known relation existing between tn
planetary distances.
But now for the fixed star
which must be hundreds of tho,
sands of times farther removed tn
the sun. There evidently can be /.
question of any sufficient eye d
lance on our earth. Meanwhile o
success with the sun has providy
rs with new one distance, 4,CG
times greater than any possible e
distance on the earth, for now thu
We know the distance at which tn
earth travels in its orbit around tn,
sun We can take the diameter of it
orbit as our eye distance. Photo
graphs taken at periods six month
apart will represent the stella
world as seen from points the dis
lance between which is already bes
Impressed in the time it would tax
Light to traverse it. The time woul'
b about sixteen minutes.
/, However, even this distance, I'm
mense as it is, is, on the whole, in
adequate for obtaining a stcreo
scopic view of the stars. 1t is onl
In quite exceptional cases that PHI
tographs on a large scale--that
obtained by the aid of big +
scopes-show any stereoscopic
feet for fixed stars. BY accur/
measurement of the photos we M
perhaps get somewhat beyond VIII
we can attain by simple steieos OF.
inspection; but. as we said a me-
ment ago, astronomers have not sur
ceeded in this way in determillin,
the distance Of more than q hun
dred stars in al. Scientific Amen
naQ