SELF-TAUGHT ASTRONOMER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 53

SELF-TAUGHT ASTRONOMER.

A REMARKABLE RECORD. (From Our Own Correspondent.) ■ CHRISTCHURCH, April 20. It was mentioned the other day that Mr F. Hitchings, of Christchurch, intended to visit Tasmania in order to.observe the total eclipse of the sun, visible there next month. In his way Mr Hitchings is a New Zealand replica of such eelf-taught scientists as Thomas Edwards and Robert Dick, whose lives were written by Dr Simes. He is a bricklayer and chimney-sweep, who still works at his trades and whose one recreation, apart from horticulture, - is astronomy, upon which out of his earnings he has spent several hundred pounds. He makes no secret of the fact that he has had little education ; indeed, he justifiably takes some pride in the progress he has made in an abstruse science in spite of this handicap. When a Press representative visited him ir. his home in Sydenham, Mr Hitchings led him to a little room which he described as his study. It was a place of cameras, photographic plates, and materials, books, papers, and instruments. It seemed to be a place ol chaos, but the owner demonstrated that it was one of order by the deftness and confidence with which he sorted out anything that was wanted. A long line of lantern slides was produced, and Mr Hitchings talked familiarly of nebula?, corona orbits, perihelions,. and other things whose names convey little to the unitiated. _ The crowning glory of the equipment is the observatory. It is a iairly large circular building, like an immense drum, surmounted by a revolving dome. The prominent feature of the interior is of course a large telescope, a good deal larger than that at the college, which is built on the equatorial principle adopted by the Lick and other observatories. It pointed through a gap in the roof at the sun, and the visitor had the pleasure of taking a closer look at the sun than he had previously enjoyed. His attention was drawn to the brown spots, microscopically small, which appeared on the (reflection of the sun, and they were labelled as sun spots. Mr Hitchings then produced a spectroscope, one of the latest design, which he had had recently imported, and a peep through it revealed the glorious colouring of the spectrum. The photographic apparatus and other attachments were exhibited, and their working explained. Mr Hitchings made many of the fittings himself, and, though they are not models ot burnished neatness, they fulfil their purpose efficiently. " What induced you to take up the study of astronomy?" Mr Hitchings was asked. He naively confessed that the desire to do what no one else in the town was doing had influenced him to some extent. " As far as my capacity goes I have achieved all I want tp do. My records go to England, and the record of the bricklayer and chimney-sweep appear in the journal with the work of professors and other learned astronomers. My first telescope cost me 4s 6d, and after that I got another costing £5. Then I sent epecifiations Home to four different houses for a large instrument. I chose the most expensive one trom the tenders I got, and paid £SO for the lens. If I had lelown as much then as I do now, I would have paid £IOO for the

lens. I have achieved everything I want as far as my education goes, and if a man has not education he can't go ahead, fc caLl myself a practical astronomer. There is no theory or reckonings about me. I take the size of the sun and the size of the spots, and my records come out very evenly with those "taken by men who are better equipped than I am. I lecture here occasionally, and always get a good hearing."