Evening star., 1932-10-02

in making things stand still than IN
making them move faster Prcsent-day Joshuas
would be more Likely to command the sun ana
the moon to get move on!'
Indeed, this has already been accomplished,
in effect, by a remarkable combination of tele-
scope and movie -ra which obtains films
of sun and moon. planets and stars, going
through days months of SLOW celcctial
changes condensed into minutes of projection
time. A month or the moon boi,s down into
a quarter of an hour on the screen
The place where this feat has been accom-
plished is appropriately enough. near Detroit,
the city where speed is Incorporated into ma
chimes and shipped wheels all over the
world The JoShuas who have turned the trick
are three: Robert McMath, Francis c. Nc
Math and Henry S. Hubert BY day. the
McMaths engineers and financcrs and
Hubert is judge But ty night they are all
astronomers-pioneer aCyenturers into an en-
tirely new field of the Oldest of the sciences
Although the men professed amateurs,
the solidity of their accomplishment is wit
messed by the fact that the University of Mich
igan has added their observatory to its formal
astronomical equipment. and has made them
honorary members of the faculty. The univer-
sity has, indeed. adopted them bodily. for they
decided over their specially built and splendidly
equipped observatory and at the same time
dedicated their treess hours of scientific labor
As part OF the university's astronomical re-
search program.
h lOR IS this recognition gwen for technical
accomplishment that is OF interest and
benefit only to clustered scholars out OF touch
with everyday life. Quite the contrary The
movies of the skies which the McMaths and
Judge Hubert have made and are still making
are OF interest to astronomers to BE- sure-the
American Philosophical Society oldest scien-
tific association in the United States. ap-
plauded when they were shown before them
but they can be understood and appreciated by
anybody and everybody and will be of much
use in the instruction of budding young astron-
orners in high schools a"d freshman college
classes.
Astronomy interests nearly everybody we
like to stand out under the stars with some one
who knows the CONSULTATIONS and try to fix
few of them in our own heads. The monthly
rlpening of the moon from thin. fragile silver
TO rotund shining ball faccinates all of us.
and shiver with at the rare and SOL
enln spectacle of total eclipse of the sun
The only trouble with astronomy is that it
moves so slowy-a disadvantage 1t shares with
botany and geology. The amateur student
interested in animals something moving
all the time but though the and moon
and planets change their relative positions in
fascinating fashion. they move SO slowly that
it takes days at least. ard sometimes months,
to them through to the end
This is where the McMath-Hulbert films
come to the The audience can see
the month-long day OF the moon express itself
in lcngthening sha doUs of the moon mountains
across the empty lunar seas. 1t see the
birth progress and disappearance of sunspots.
It can follow the waxing and waning of Venus,
which passes through phases like the moon
something first seen by Calico through his
crude telescope generations ago 1t can watch
Jupiter spinning on its axis. while its family
of moons dance around it. It can see all this
in single evening Of fascinating. scientific
entertainment
1T is all done by a reYer.al of the technique
J that gives US the familiar slow motion pic
lures of the newsrees. In these. the films are
taken at a furious speed and projected at the
conventional rate. Such speeded-up pictures
have been shown to certain extent already
with growing plants an1 SIMILAR exchanging
sub '~c.s.
1t all sounds Very simple: just point your
camera and crank slowly enough If that were
all Even with plants that stand still in front
OF the lens and don't require the help of q
high telescope the job has its difficulties.
rs any of the growth-recording scientific CAM
eramen can tell you But astronomical changes
are never even as nearly uniform as growth in
plant. and the celestial objects do anything
but stand still.
The rotation of the earth sweeps them
across the sky from cast to west; the change
OF the seasons mo:es them tat a slower rate)
from north to south and back again; the re-
fraction effect of the earth's atmosphere
makes them seem to travel at different rates
Of speed or approach the horizon: the planets
revolution about the sun causes them to move
sometimes faster. sometimes slower, than the
fixed stars. and the moons behavior is
very devils puzzle to unravel.
And all these possibilities of error which
would make the pictures dance and Wobble