Y.M.C.A.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 27 July 1927, Page 2

Y.M.C.A.

SATURDAY NIGHT CLUB

A large number of voting fellows again attended the Y.M.C.A. Saturday Night Club and participated in the programme which consisted of a great variety of recreational and club room games. As has been tlie custom a half-hour talk was given. Mr E. L. Mcrley, of the Atkinson Observatory was the speaker and he delivered an intensely interesting talk on astronomy.

Astronomy was in many ways a mathematical science, said the speaker, and mathematics was responsible for the discovery of the planet Neptune. Some interesting comparisons are as follows: The sun is 105 times the size of ths earth : Jupiter is about ten times the size of the earth ; a ray of light travelling 186,000 miles a second (nearly eight times round the earth in one second) wo,nld take one and a-quarter seconds to reach us from the moon, eight and one. third minutes from the sun, and four hours from the planet Neptune. To show the comparative smallness of the solar system compared to the stellar system, it would take four and a-third years for the same light to travel from the nearest star. An estimate of distances could be gauged from the fact that the light from the nearest star cluster travelling at the above rate -would take 28.000 years to reach us. In mea. suring distances as far as the solar system was concerned, the solar unit was the distance of earth from sun. 92,900,000 miles.

To illustrate the points of the talk the speaker handed round a number of photographic reproductions, showing foh example, some of the chief markings of the sun and several planets; also a number of plates' gave illustrations of various nebulae and star clusters. After the talk an interested group gathered round Mr Morley for furthei> information. The club accorded a heartv vote of thanks to the speaker.