The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-05-03
High In The Sky, Texas Telescope
 Will Reveal New Secrets Of Stars
Mcdonald Observatory Dedication Will Be May 5
By NEA Service

By NEA Service
 Alpine, Texas, May 3.-Thrusting five stories high against the Texas sky atop 6800-foot Mt. Locke, the worlds newest, second-largest, and most accurate reflecting telescope will begin on May its quest for the secrets of outer space.
 Sixteen miles from the nearest village, 42 miles from the nearest railroad, high up in the Davis Mountains of west Texas, this new astronomical marvel stands al- most as lonely as the remote spaces of the universe it is built to explore.
 Thirty motors drive the machin- cry of the massive but delicately- balanced machinery that focuses the 82-inch reflector. Four years of grinding and polishing have been required to shape that re- Hector accurately to one-millionth of an inch.
 It will take photographs of stars a million times fainter than the dimmest that the human eye can see. Some of them are 100000 900 flight years" from the earth. And one light year is the distance light travels in the 32,000,0O0 sec onds of a year at a rate of 186,0OO miles each second.
 NEW
 VISTAS
 No wonder that 15 world-famous astronomers will gather for a two- day symposium organized by Dr. Otto Struve, director of both the Mcdonald Observatory as this in- stitution will be called, and of the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin.
 Vistas of the universe never seen before are expected to be opened up by this gigantic celestial eye.
 One of the first tasks set is to secure additional information about the mysterious white dwarfs" in our universe. Most of them have been already discovered by instru- ments of moderate size, but little is yet known about them, though they are as big as the earth and of very high temperature and lumin- osity. Scientists want to know what they are made of, since they know that the material is so compressed that cubic inch of 1t may weigh several tons.
 Focused on the nebulae of glow inn hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen which envelope our universe of stars, the new telescope is expected to yield new information on the phy- sical properties of hydrogen, and perhaps a clearer understanding Of the physical laws governing the change of matter, radiation of stars, and dissipation of energy in the universe.
 'The wealth of scientific ma teyial which will be made avail able to humanity through the use of the 82-inch telescope is prac- tically unlimited" believes Dr. Struve.
 Six years of patient effort will come to ,fruition on May 5, and in addition to the world-famous as- tronomers present, several hun drOd members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science will also attend the dedication. It was on Dec. 31, 1883, that the glass for the mirror was cast at the Corning Glass Works at Corning, New York. SPECIAL MACHINERY
 SET UP
 Months of the most painstaking watchfulness were required before the mold had cooled enough to be handled. Then it was shipped to the optical department of the Warner and Swasey Co., in Cleveland, who had designed the observatory and telescope, and who were to grind the mirror
 Special laboratories, grinding and polishing machinery, scientific test ing apparatus and huge aluminiZ- ing cell had to be set up as the four-year job of grinding and pol ishing went slowly forward.
 The finished lens was then trans ported to Texas, and set up in so delicate balance that the 26-foot, 75-ton instrument is driven by 1-3 horsepower motor.
 The dedication of the new Mo Donald telescope is expected by as- tronomers to be the most important addition to astronomical research facilities made in this country for 25 years. The only larger reflector type instrument now in use is the 100-inch instrument at Mt. Will son.
 Both these magnificent inStru- ments will be overshadowed. how ever, when the 200-inch Palomar telescope, now building, shall have been completed.