A VIEW THROUGH THE GREAT RUSSIAN TELESCOPE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6763, 21 July 1883, Page 2 (Supplement)

A VIEW THROUGH THE GREAT RUSSIAN TELESCOPE.

Writing on May 15, a Boston correspondent sa y a .—"Last evening a small party assembled to tike a farewell view through the obj-ct glass of the great Russian telescope ere its departure for its eastern home. That th.B reader may understand the method of the observations couducted, let him imagine a pier of solid masonry twenty-seven feet in height. On this the great telescope is mounted. It is a giant tube, forty five feet in length and forty inches in diameter. Great »s are these proportions they become mag'iitied by tbe conditions under which they are viewed, and thci immense tube looms grandly up over the heads of the party against the dark sky. The reader may remember that a celestial object begins to set after it passes the meridian, sinking lower and lower until it passes below the horizon. In observing, then, it is as if the object that is being viewed were at one end of the telescope, the observer beiDg at the other. As the object declines toward the western • horiz >n, the other end of the telescope, with the observer, must rise in the opposite direction, else the object passea out of the field of view, falling to the west of the telescope and below it. It is the moon that the party has come to see, and she has already pa-Bed the meridian. She is, therefore, setting, and the observers must be prepared to follow her with the telescope in order to keep h-r in the field of view. Bat here a difficulty arises. This mounting of the telescope is only temporary and for testing its power and performance, and it is not intended to enable one to follow the moon or any other celestial object very far from the meridian. A temporary stand has been erected, on which steps are placed, aud as far as these will permit one to point the telescope he can follow an object and no further. The clouds still persi;tently cover the moon, allowing only occasional glimpses. But the prospect brightens. The clouds are passing over. A little more and the sky will be entirely clear. The platform is moved to take advautage of the occasion and to prolong the observation to the last moment practicable. Again they are at the eye piece. The detail is wonderfully clear. The ragged line of the terminator is sho wo in all its irregularity. But more power is needed. The eye piece is removed and one of high power substituted. Again they look. The solid earth slips away from under their feet. They have left it behind them. They are one hundred miles above the moon, sailing over its surface. The scenery below tbe party on which they fix their gaze is tumultuously irregular, and yet bears throughout a general resemblance. Here is a specimen :—A circular cavity, the exterior on one side and the interior on the other being brightly illuminated. They call it a cavity, but in the interior it seem 3 level, except near the centre, from which there rises a cone or dome, bright on one side, on which the sun shines, and castiDg a shadow on tbe other along the floor of the enclosure. The central mound is higher than Mount Washington. The enclosing walls which fence it in are higher still, and the enclosure itself is more than fifty miles across. ' This is the type of a lunar crater on a grand scale. Others, however, are larger, their diameters being from two to three time 3 that which we examine and covering a surface in some instances of nearly twenty thousand square miles. From this they range down to insignificance. There are more than fifty thousand craters on the moon, which indicate how prevalant volcanic action once was upon its surface. What a spectacle our satellite must have presented at the period of greatest volcanic disturbance. Fifty thousand craters ! many of them rivalling in height the loftier mountains of our own globe. Here they are mixed together in inextricable confusion. No wonder if the observing party are bewildered. They have no time to study the craters in detail; they must take them en viassc. Now tbe observers are on the terminator, that line which separates the light and dark parts of the moon and which seems so even to the naked eye, displaying now every conceivable irregularity. What is that glittering in the dark ? Is it the reflection from some artificial work flashing the sun's rays back, telling a tale of habitation and industry ? No ; it is a mountain peak catching the solar beam, while the surrounding region is in darkness. On that peak the lunar day is dawning, the long day of 354J hours. Could the party ha\e time to watch it they would see the sunlight gradually steal along its rugged flanks and slowly the whole landscape become illuminated. But it would only repeat in its general features that on which they had been gazing. As the sun gilds that mountain top does any living being hail the beams that usher in the day? .Now, if ever, is the time fco ascertain if there is life in the moon. The observers are gazing through the greatest telescope in the world. They strain theireyestoseesomesign, some token that the landscape they survey is not a desert. They are willing to be convinced where facts command conviction. It is grand, it is magnificent, but the magnificence of desolation. Where, then, are the cities, the fortifications, the cultivated fields, that charmed the eye and delighted the fancy of the older astronomers? Is it possible that these once existed and are now no more? Han a maleviolent influence accompanied the growthof ourinstruroents anddissipatcd them precisely in proportion io fie improvement of our optical powers? Or must we believe that the older* astronomers, viewing things dimly, and too eager to bo convinced of that which they longed to believe, made up for the imperfections of their instruments by the brilliancy of their imaginations ? But the party have no time for speculation. What is that now which attracts the observer's attention ? It is a hollow groove in the surface of the moon. The party can trace its course, if they will, for a hundred miles. It is nearly half a mile in depth and several time 3as broad. To the older astronomers it would have been a military road, or to their clearer sighted successors a fcreat canal. The observers see it as a fissure in tho moon's surface But it is not' alone. There are many such. The surface of our satellite is cracked and rugged. Evidently at some period of its history it has had rough usagp, But the party are nearing the end of their journey. For some time, by using all their strength, they have held the great tube to its work. But now the inexorable motion of the earth is carrying away from the observers the object of their contemplation. They are now on the last step of the ladder. They stand on tiptoe and clasp the great tube with both hands. They are clinging for dear life. It is gone! and the observer who has wandered so far is restored to Mother Earth. The mighty wizard that transported us still points to those silent heavens whose mysteries he is destined to explore, but never again will ho reveal the beauties of fair Cynthia's form to mortal eye upon the western continent. To-morrow the object glass will be taker, and the two pieces of which it is composed be separately and safely packed. It will be accompanied to Europe by Mr. C. E. R. Lundin, who will deliver it into the hands of Dr. Struve. This crowning effort of the optician may stand as the contribution which American art makes to Russian science. In the hands of this distinguished astronomer for whom it is designcdit will be used to extend the boundaries of the noble science whoso annals record the | efforts of his genius and add to the lustre of that great nation to which ho belongs.