Evening star., 1938-06-05
By Ruth EveLyn FLEMING.


A GALAXY Of stars, the planet.
~ and other celestial habitants
~ will become the intimates oi
4 members of the National Cap
ttal Amateur Astronomers Association
Any clear night from now on we may
find number of these star gazers en-.
camped on the grounds of the Naval
Observatory, scanning the heavens
through instruments of their owu
manufacture.
Armed with homemade telescopes
the Capital amateurs are now
equipped to make excursions to the
celestial realm. Nightly they will dip
into the craters of the moon, traverse
its shadowy valleys and sunlit peaks
go on to the Bay of Rainbows or past
the Pillars of Hercules. If fancy de-
crees they may then take peek at
Jupiter, revel in the beauty of Saturn
or pay visit to Mars.
These excursions come as a sort of
reward, for every Tuesday evening
throughout the past winter these am
bilious amateurs were in the labora-
tory at Central High School, busily
grinding, rubbing, scrubbing or polish
ing mirrors to be mounted in tele-
scopes that will admit them to the
most romantic branch of modern
science-the only science in which the
amateur has been given professional
standing.
WITH patience and care the work
Nv proceeded under the expert super
vision of Stephen Macy, president Of
the association, who organized the
club with nucleus of about Is men,
bers little more than year ago.
There are now nearly a hundred men,
bers - evidence that Washington is
taking its stride in a hobby that has
swept the country. Some of their
telescopes will be exhibited at the
Smithsonian Institution in the near
future.
Since the object of this organiza-
ton is not only the enjoyment, edu-
cation and mutual improvement of its
members in the science of astronomy,
but also for the announcement of an
interest in this science among others,
the local association can think of no
better way to stimulate such interest
than through the establishment of a
planetarium in the District of Colum-
bia, and they are actively interested in
this project.
They opened their campaign by in
viting President Roosevelt to lead the
drive. Several plans by means of
which their objective might be realized
were submitted, the most interesting
of which suggested that planetarium
be erected as a memorial to Thomas
Jefferson-a fitting tribute to a man
Of great vision.
This would be a never ending source
of enjoyment and culture to the people
of Washington and its thousands of
visitors. The original debt should be
liquidated within a period of five years
by charging even a small admission
fee. 1t would then be a source of
income to the District.
There are many features to recon-
mend planetarium, but the one most
universally enjoyed, it seems, is the
drama of the heavens re-enacted be-
fore the eyes of the spectators. The
amazing spectacle of this noiseless
drama begins as brilliant sun passes
overhead to sink below the horizon
in the west. While twilight shadows
deepen into night, there appears a
canopy of stars. A year is seen to
pass as months are compressed into
seconds, and celestial bodies-the
moon, planets, consultations, and
the milky way, all in proper sequence
of time, appear to parade across the
heavens. The scene changes ss they
drift from Northern skies to the
Southern Hemisphere, and the South
ern Cross comes into view. One
glimpses the skies as they have been
from time immemorial, and as they
Will continue through infinity-the