GIANT TELESCOPE

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 30 March 1929, Page 9

GIANT TELESCOPE

WHAT 18 EXPECTED FROM IT

tlic light from which is ;is iainL as an ordinary candle viewed from a distance of H.OM) miles, will )>e visible with tin* new 20U-ineh telescope to he built lor the California Institute of Technology, said Dr. Walter ,s. Adams, Director of the Mount W ilson Observatory at Pasadena, California, speaking during the eighty-fifth meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Adams’ discussion of the possibilities of the new telescope, for which funds were provided recently through an appropriation by the international Education Hoard, was made before a joint session of the American Physical Society and the American Meteorological Society, meeting in connection with the association’s sessions. The mirror of the new telescope, which will have four times the surface of the 1011-inch telescope of the Mount Wilson observatory, now the largest in the world, will collect approximately 700,000 times as much light as the human eye, Dr. Adams said. ith it atHIIIIIIIIHIIHMIIHHimwM II IMIM» •**•••! l»IIIIU-****IIIIIIMI»r*,^_ -

s star.-, of llm t wenly-lil'lli magnitude, at 1 least live lo ten times fainter than e llioso now visible with any telescope, e will iic studied, he added o The new instrument, according to . Dr. Adams, will “add some hundreds i of millions to the number oi stars witli- , in our own universe which can be - photographed and measured for briglitr ness.” “The 290-itich telescope will prob- - ably make its greatest contribution in i the field of nebular research, the speci tr.il analysis of stars on a large scale, 1 and measurements of the heat of stars i and the surlace temperatures o. plaii--1 ets," lie continued. ‘ it is estimated that the 209-ineh i telescope will show nebulae to a distance of 400,000,(XX) light years, and , that within this range their number * will amount to perhaps o.COJ.OO;) or 3 1.u,<.)J0,000.” 1 Numerous technical problems in connection with the construction of the ‘ giant telescope are still to he solved, Dr. Adams said. Accuracy of one live hundred thousandth of an inch is repaired in making the big reflector, and I lie General Klcc-tric Company is giving much attention to the problem of making the large discs of fused quartz front which the reflector will ho ground. I’iie question of location is still to he determined. Dr. Adams added. The ( ali.oraia Institute oi 'leehnologv and the Mount Wilson Observatory are studying the regions oi southern (alilornia and Arizona with Ihe view to hading the most advantageous point! for the new onservutory, he said. I Tile eilect oj desert, ocean, local topography, temperature range, dircc-i lion oi the winds and other factors are j to he subjected to detailed invest iga-| ! lion. } How the shadow of Lite earth sweep--1 ing across the face of the moon in the ■eclipse of June 14, 1928. reduced the I , .surface temperature more than .'fill deforces in less than four hours, was de-l scribed before the American A.-droti-1 : omical Society by J)r. Edison Pettitf and Dr. Seth 15. Nicholson, of the! Mount Wilson Observatory, j The two astronomers gave the detai s of extensile studies involving the separation, with delicate instruments, jof the iiglit waves reflected from the moon and the heat waves which it radiates. The normal surface temperature on flic moon at a point exposed directly to the overhead rays of the sun, is 260 degrees Fahrenheit, it has been found.