Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-09-07

the country. A deep student and inde-
fatigable worker, he took leading part
In international research and discus
sions, and soon became known through
out the world in scientific circles.
Published Many Volumes.
He had published many volumes on
his astronomical researches but the
latter years of his life became involved
In a worldwide astronomical dispute
over the existence of faint, mysterious
clouds of light In the heavens, the ex-
istence of which he was seeking to
prove.
In the Spring of 1929 at the meeting
of the American Association of Fixed
Star Observers in Washington, Rev.
Paul Mentally, s. j., director of the
Georgetown Observatory, made an ap-
peal to persons interested in astronomy
to help Father Hagen in his search.
The strange lights had first been dis
covered in 1911 by Sir william Har-
schel, most celebrated of all observers
of the sky, who listed So of these OBJ
jects and gave their exact positions.
Apparently no one else saw them and
the dispute did not arise until half
century later, when Sir Isaac Roberts
of England tried to check them. He
q
existence of the others.
Heavens Photographed.
This caused Edward Barnard of Lick
Observatory, whose star charts recently
were published by the Carnegie Insti-s
tuition of Washington, to come to the
defense of Herschel on the ground that
so great an astronomer could not have
gone far wrong. Barnard, however, had
tried to get evidence by photographing
the heavens. He kept quiet on the
negative results Of his plates, but Father
Mentally examined them and found
they showed nothing.
The next person to take UP the
search was Father Hagan at Rome, who
entered it without bias in favor of
Herschel but was surprised to find the
little objects in the exact positions where
the English astronomer had found
them a century before. After checking
his observations he published them q
few years ago.
Observations Disputed.
Then astronomers all over the world
took up the search and began disputing
Father Hagen's observations because
they could find none of the mysterious
objects. Father McNally, however, has
6eATCIlSu 1OI years hIlu CldlLklo W AAhtS
found a few Of the spots.
Letters from Father Hagen received
at Georgetown IN recent years convey
on the part of the astronomer an in
creaSing despair over his efforts TO get
his claims generally accepted and he
was becoming convinced that his last
years of work were resulting in failure.
He had sent to Georgetown the entire
collection OF his star maps showing the
locations where he claimed he saw the
objects. The widow of Roberts alao
sent to Georgetown file of charts for
checking against those OF Father Hagen
in the belief that the cause of the
differences had been found. It was
to help vindicate his former instruc-
tor that Father Mentally appealed to
people TO help IN the search for these
objects until they can be fully estab-
lished.
Loved American People.
It was while he was at Georgetown
University that Father Hagen, who
loved and admired the American peo-
pie and its institutions, fulfilled a de-
sire to become a citizen of this coun-
try in fact as well as in residence.
He had come to the United States In
1880 and thus mad lived here IS years
before being called to his post in
Rome.
Father Hagen was born in BregenZ,
Austria, in 1647. He received his early
education in Feldkirch, Austria, and
pursued his university studies in
Munster and Bonn, Germany. AS a
student he had decided to become q
priest and preferably a Jesuit. since
the order was devoted to education, so
he pursued ecclesiastical studies in
England, He entered the Society of
Jesus in 1853.