THE SOUTHERN GROSS

Southland Times, Issue 17306, 31 March 1913, Page 6

THE SOUTHERN GROSS

WONDERS OF SOUTHERN SKIES. MISS PROCTOR’S FINAL LECTURE! • At the Victoria Hall on Saturday evening Miss Proctor delivered her final lecture in Invercargill on the “Southern Cross and Other Wonders of Southern Skies.” Miss Proctor began her lecture with an account of her first view of these stars after leaving Honolulu last April. She then described the various traditions and legends which have woven themselves around this constellation, which she described as one of the most picturesque objects of the Southern skies. A chart showed the Southern Cross and the coal sack, a vacant region at the foot of the Southern Cross, which, although seemingly-devoid of stars is in reality filled with m> fewer than 6000 stars. The stars in this region were photographed some years ago, Miss Proctor said, by Mr Russell at the Sydney Observatory. Miss Proctor showed lantern slides made from this photogsaph and later drew attention to the two stars. Alpha and Beta, in the Centaur, which are usually referred to as pointers, because they point directly to the Southern Cross. Alpha is of special interest because it is the nearest star to the sun in the heavens. To give an idea of its distance the lecturer gave the following illustrations. If a railroad track could be made from the earth to the sun a train going at the rAte of a mile a minute would take 175 years to reach the sun, but if the same railroad could be extended across space the journey from the earth to the nearest star would be 225.000 times as long. Astronomers. the lecturer went on, do not refer to the distance of stars in millions of miles but in light years, that is the time required by light to travel from the star. For instance light travels at the rate of 186,230 miles a second, and tlius it would take a period of four years and four months in coming to us from the nearest star. With regard to the great advance that has been made in astronomy by means of photography, Miss Proctor gave an account of the wonderful work which is being accomplished with the 60-inch reflector at Mt Wilson, in Southern California. She showed several photographs of spiral nebulae and clusters taken with that instrument. and referred to the idea that •has recently been suggested that the«e vast masses of glowing gas, which are interspersed with the stars, may be distant universes. Tn conclusion. Miss Proctor remarked that no one had so ably given an idea of the wonders of infinite space aw the German poet, Rcichster, .in the wonderful dream poem which has been so ably translated by Dr Quincey. With the recitation of this poem by Miss Proctor the lecture was concluded. The proceeds of the lecture will be placed by Miss Proctor in the hands of the Public Trustee for the Solar Observatory Fund. To-night Miss Proctor will lecture in Dunedin, and will spend a week in the North Island later on.