The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-10-08
CHANGE In SKIES
Suns Which Adorned Summer
Evenings Have Gone West.
Eastern Horizon CLOVIS With
Promise of Mighty Suns.
TWO WONDERS OF UNIVERSE
Hope to Solve Contents of a
Distant World.
Peruseus Bears Head of Oregon
Medusa in Left Hand.
TWO WONDERS OF UNIVERSE
BY E w. SCOTT.

If it weren't for certain set rules re-
specting the writing of heads, l should
ask the editor to caption this Some
thing for Nothing" But since the
head alone would not suffice to fill
the space required, and, incidentally.
might lead to an assertion that the
publishers were trying to bambooZle
the public, we shall have to let our
som ethinG for nothing" idea remain
peacefully in the body of this article
Really. something for nothing is the
perpetual motion-there amt no such
animal. But we can approximate
something for nothing if we will but
count the waste moments in our daily
life and utilize them in taking just a
tiny bit of the lavish offering Nature
makes US in these declining days of
summer.
There is none of us who is not
within fifteen minutes. or less. of a bit
OF water and shrubbery. and it is sur
pr1stng what those surroundings may
yield in the way of unsupported life
Already the advance guard of the fall
migrants is with US. Speculation may
point to them as those less hardy in
dividuals whose feathers have let thru
the sting of the cold nights to the
north of US, and babe them be on their
way, or, more charitably, as the i'm
patient representatives of their species,
domestic duties over anxious for their
winter home.
Why only this morning, passing one
OF the ponds in one of our city parks,
l listed among those present"
Buterides virescens, or the green heron
and ActitIS maCularia, the spotted
sandpiper. True, they waited not to
prolong mountaineering. but were
quickly on their way before even
good morning could be said. Chicka-
dees, dOwny woodpeckers, redstarts,
fusion. And have you heard the
caroling of the robins? Perhaps not.
For it is only once i'll a while Merulla
migratorius favors US at this season
with his spring song. 1t has its sig
nificanCe, however. The families have
been raised, have been taught to fly
and feed, and now the Old Man has a
short time to look to his own condi-
tioning before joining in the long fall
flight to the south. His worries, for a
time at least, are over.
Even the skies are changing. Arc
turus, Vega, Altair-those resplend-
ent suns which have adorned our
summer evening skies-are already
west of the meridian, while the east
ern horizon glows with a promise of
more mighty suns to gladden. the long
winter nights Fomalhaut of the Aus
tralian Fish CLEANS brilliantly in the
southeast and low in the nor east-by-
north quarter, the She-goat, Capella,
rid head of Medusa cIutched tightly
in his left hand, climbs the northeast
ern sky to the rescue of the fair
Andromeda, while the unhappy CASH
opeia, author of all Andromeda's
woes. swings head downward above
her.
Two Wonders of Our Universe.
It is in this particular section of the
sky that are to be found two of the
naked-eye wonders of our universe
the spiral nebula in Andromeda and
the variable star Algol in Perseus.
fFtF-F 70, ho
the appearance of hazy star. In the
opera glass, its spiral nature may be
slightly detected, while binoculars, if
you are so fortunate as to possess
them, will reveal still more fully the
curious form of the ne5ula Its dis
lance from US is not known, but it
cannot be less than 100 light years.
A light year is the distance light will
travel in enc year at a speed of 1885,
600 miles in one second of time One
light year is approximately six trillion
miles, and one hundred of them gives
us 500. 900, 900. coo, 900. Using this dis
lance as a base, we are able to meas
ure the width of the nebula from the
angular diameter. This gives a dis
tance, from end to end of the nebula,
of 10000 light years. Get your pencil
and figure it out in miles.
Remember this is based on a dis
lance of 100 light years. 1t may be
farther away than that and # it is, it
What hope of solving the contents
of this distant universe? For it is
deemed n universe outside our uni
verse by scientists. Our feeble sight
augmented by the greatest optical
power known cannot resolve from out
the gaseous mass the myriad suns that
sweep majestically about its confines;
we cannot catch, or ever hope to, the
faintest CLEAN of planets attendant on
those suns. What forms of life, what
hopes, what aspirations, those distant
worlds may hold must remain forever
unsolved- But yet. we can see its out
line with the naked eye.
Perseus has been spoken of as bear
ing in his left hand the head of the
Gorgon, Medusa. Mythology tells us
that so terrible was the countenance
of the Gorgon that a glance at it was
sufficient to turn a mortal into stone.
The eye of this formidable monster is
the star Algol, the name signifying the
Demon Eye or the Fiend of the Woods
is from the Arabic AL Ghul. An
English derivative is found in our
word "ghou1."
The Arabs had noted the peculiar
tendency of the eye to wink at regular
intervals. This interval is, to be ex-
seconds, and the wink" consists of
an appreciable decrease in the amount
of light given out. This diminution is
caused by a second star. which gives
no light, passing before Algol and pre-
senting US with an eclipse of the Iumi-
nary of this binary system. 1t is esti-
mated that Algol is considerably
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