Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-08

times SIS for each of his other tele-
scopes, but / am sure that no amount
of money could induce him to part with
that first instrument. He is one Of our
members"
And then David Pickering hurried on
with more news-his kind of Florida
news.
Another of our members. a mer-
chant of Atlanta, went to Miami on
vacation. He brought a 5-inch tele-
scope. One night he set 1t up in park
in the middle of Miami and invited
people to take look. Soon he had a
waiting line every night. He added a
second telescope, then another and an
other. until he had seven in all. He
organized groups of star lovers as at
tendantS at the telescopes. Then he
invited Dr. Shapley of Harvard, DR..
Frost OF Yerkes and other distinguished
astronomers to come to Miami He
hired the largest. hall in town and put
on a series Of astronomical lectures.
Several thousand persons jammed
the hall for each lecture, and astron-
omy became so live an interest that
one of the newspapers instituted daily
column OF astronomical items and re-
quested the Atlanta merchant to supply
the copy. He did. 1t is as fine a piece
OF educa tional work as anything I
know. Our friend and member died
recently, but a group of kindred spirits
are carrying on
Star Gazing a Cult.
There is this itch to show others, as
well as to see the celestial wonders for
oneself. Star gazing. is a cult-almost
a religion-and therefore indefinable.
But how does it start in the heart of
man? How does one get into this
strange preoccupation of keeping score
on the blinking stars?
Wen, answered Mr.. Pickering,
when 1 was a 13-year-old student In
the Newark Academy-this was in 1888
"a small book, Fourteen Weeks in AS
tronomy,' came into my hands. I've
been star struck ever since.
was 20 years old before I owned a
telescope. 1t was only a spyglass, but
20 go out In the backyard and pick out
the 1amllfar orbS through the glass gave
me tremendous thrill. A few years
later bought a telescope mounted on
tripod. Later this second glass gave
place to an instrument of 81 inches
aperture. was out all hours of the
night with this lens, and saw most
OF the grand sights of the heavens: the
mountains of the moon, Saturn's rings.
Jupiter's satellites, the markings on
Mars. the globular cluster In Hercules.
the Orion nebula, the great spiral in
the beehive in Cancer.
FINALLY I reached the stage where
mere. sightseeing began to pail. Every
amateur comes to this eventually, and
then. Ii his interest is really serious, he
wonders II there is not some useful
work that he can do with his telescope.
In this state of mind I dropped in
at the New York Public Library one
DAY IN the Summer of 1914, to look
through the astronomical journals. I
mad familiarized myself with the names
OF the leading astronomers and observa-
tories, but I was awed by their great
ness and shrank from writing for their
advice. That day in the library I
CHANGED to see mention of amateurs
who had organized as variable star OBJ
servers. That looked promising. I
made inquiry and learned that the NOV
ing spirit was william Tyler Olcott,
an amateur astronomer of Norwich,
Conn. wrote to Mr.. Olcott, told him
my plight and asked If he thought I
could be OF any use as an observer.
Response Prompt and Hospitable.
His response was prompt and hos
pltable. You are already a member
he wrote, and inclosed charts of certain
star flelds and q list of Variables. He
also mentioned the name of a New
York member OF the association, Mr..
e. w. Putnam, of the Putnam publish
ing frm. I called on Mr.. Putnam at
once. He invited me to lunch, and we
sat long into the afternoon talking of
the stars. It is the most memorable
day Of my life-my first taste of the
fellowship
Mr.. Pickering was summering on the
New Jersey shore at this time, and that
July night he got out his 3l2 Inch tele-
scope, set it up on the beach, laid out
his star chart and went to work.
Il decided to begin with SS-Cygni.
which was described as one of the most
of the variables-a star
which normally is of the. twelfth mag
nitude, but which suddenly, about every
two months, rises to eighth magnitude.
Well, SS-Cygni gave me a chase. 1
worked four hours out there on the
deserted beach before found even its
star f1eld. Then, when finally identi-
fed the field, the star was at mini
mum brightness, and with my small
telescope / could hardly see it. But
eventually found the star and was
able to make a comparison of its bright
ness with that of neighboring stars, and
so secured an observation and was able
to fill in the report form-my first con-
tribution to the science of astronomy"
Today SS-Cygnl is regarded, because
OF its 1rregularity, as perhaps the most
challenging of all the variable stars
known. And whenever it is visible
chain of observers around the world
watch and record its unpredictable Pc
culiarities.
When David Pickering joined the Va
riable Star Observers in 1914, they were
loosely organized group of % persons
who had been brought into cooperation
by the leadership of Mr.. Olcott, acting
under the inspiration of the then d.
rector of the Harvard College Observa-
tory, Prof. Edward c. Pickering. prof.
Pickering, should explain at once, was
not related to David Pickering, but the
two became close friends and the great
Harvard astrophysicist found in this en-
thusiastic and loyal amateur one of his
most powerful allies in recruiting OBJ
servers Of variable stars.)
Pickering Named First President.
1t was not until 1918 that the group
formally incorporated and elected offi-
GERS. David Pickering was chosen the
first president and served four years in
that capacity. william Tyler Olcott
was elected the first secretary and has
been kept In this key position ever
since. Another veteran of the associa-
ton is J. e. G. Walden of Leonia, N. j.,
principal of the Baron de
Hirsch Trade School in New York.
Mr.. Yalden's proficiency in higher
mathematics has made him especially
valuable as director of some extra work
the association assumed few years ago,
when Prof. e. w. Brown of Yale, find
ing discrepancies in the motions of the
moon, appealed to the Variable Star
Observers to add the moon to their list
Of interests. What Prof. Brown wanted
was a series of nightly observations of
lunar occultations-i. e. records of the
exact moment when the moon eclipsed
certain stars. Fifteen of the best math-
ematical minds of the association were
organized as a special committee on oc-
cultations, under Mr.. Walden. In a re-