The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1946-04-09
BY J. p. BAILLOD
Senior Optical Instrument
Maker. MOB

Do you know that Key Westers
and visitors alike have been and
still are unaware of one of the
greatest attractions of this en-
chanting island? Thousands Of
war workers walked through
its quaint streets in the years
past, often asking the same ques
ton, What is there to see or to
be had in Key West that is not
available in the cities of our hore
State?"
Walking usually with his head
down, man forgets to lift his eyes
towards heaven. Had the same
workers looked up, they would
have seen something never to lie
forgotten, something they never
saw in their home state, not even
in other sections of Florida: The
Tropical Sky.
. 1t is true that Key West is one
degree and five minutes North of
the Tropic of Cancer, but we may
disregard that technically as most
of the tropical sky is visible IRON
here.
To enjoy all of its beauty, the
.brilliancy of its miriads of stars,
the luminosity of its milky way,
you must go to the Seashore, face
South and loose yourself in inc
splendor of the Southern sky. True
enough, further South, nearer the
Equator and beyond, the sky is
ever more lavish, but this outpost
of our nation is the only place IN
the United States from Wher. SO
many stars can be seen at one
time, and the only city from Whr~e
the Southern Cross is plainly Wis
IDLE for more than an hour.
Under favorable conditions, the
Southern Cross can be gazed 1T
for few minutes from Miami
and other localities South of the
Is degree latitude circle; but Key
West has the distinct honor Of
being the only u. S. city from
where that constellation can be
clearly observed for any length
of time.
Our northern friends will prob.
ably say that their winter sky is
just as beautiful. l agree with
them. No matter from where, the
sky is always beautiful, especially
so in cold nights, when the dry
and transparent air brings the
stars almost within reach. Never
theless, they will admit, when
gazing towards the consultations
of Scorpius and Sagittarius that
the opulence of the star field and
the brightness of the milky way
Is greater there than in any other
part of the sky. This is due to
the fact that the center of our
Galaxy is located in that direc-
ton.
For thousands of years, man
thought his insignificant planet
the center of the Universe, with
the sun, moon, planets and the
mlrladS of stars revolving ODE
diently around it once in "a hours.
When that theory, sanctioned by
the church and the scientists of
that time, was shattered by Gal
llleo in 1909, man still believed
the sun to be at the center. Ui.-
fortunately for mans pride, with
the perfectlOnment of the tele-
scope and other astronomical 10
struments, the discovery of the
law OF graVitation, and more re-
Gently the use of SpectroScopy and
photography, our position in our
Universe has gone from bad %
worse. According to recent cal
we are about $4,000
light years away from the center
of our home galaxy, and no one
knows how far remote our own
galaxy might be from the center
of the Universe. This eccentric
position of our solar system witt
in the milky way is responsible
for the beauty of the Southern
sky.
Nothing can compare with the