VALUE OF ASTRONOMY

Taranaki Daily News, 25 July 1929, Page 6

VALUE OF ASTRONOMY

PRACTICAL USES EXPLAINED . WHAT MANY .FAIL TO REALISE. GREAT SERVICE IN COMMON LIFE.

(By the Rev. B. Dudley, F.R.A.S.). By the aid of a small telescope erected on a garden stand a few of us were one frosty night contemplating the starry heavens. Being unavoidably in the pub- ; lie view, a passer-by noticed us, and re- • garding the group somewhat curiously, : remarked to his companion, “What’s the I good of it, anyhow?” One felt inclined to retort: “Well, it hasn’t done anyone any harm!” That would have been a short answer, though as lacking in due seriousness as was the observation of the man who had exclaimed bis ignorance. The opinion some folk have of stargazing is that, it serves to pass away the time, and is innocent enough. The present article is intended to show that, more than is generally supposed, the science of the heavenly bodies is of great practical service in common life, and that the average person, even he who speaks of him in terms of contempt, is indebted to the man with the telescope. Astronomers and observatories play a considerable, part in ordinary life, though withf out a little assistance comparatively few people are in a position to understand Ito what extent this is true. Like the ! | stars themselves, the scientists who specialise in this branch of study do their work in silence and obscurity. It is therefore not strange that many people wonder what object men can have in view in devoting themselves to observing and thinking about stars. The truth is astronomy is more intimately connected than any other science with the history of mankind. Chemistry, psychics and other branches of study are comparatively modern, while the actual observation of the heavens has engaged the attention of men from a time prior to the beginning of authentic history. MAN’S OBLIGATION.

Mankind is placed under obligation to astronomy for two main reasons. The science has been the means of raising our conception of the scale and glory of the universe, and it has, as is here being shown, made itself of practical value in the service of the race. Every sailor ■ who goes far out of sight of land has to be somethin- of an astronomer. While his compass tells him in which directions lie the four cardinal points, it supplies him with no information as to where on the wide ocean he may be, or whither the currents may be carrying him. More than the compass is required to complete the mariner’s sense of security. Hence his training in “nautical astronomy.” What is true of the mariner is also the case with regard to the surveyor. In his .work out in the wilds the surveyor must depend on astronomical observations to learn hig exact position on the earth’g surface, and the latitude and longtitude of the camp he occupies. In the past he relied on his knowledge that the earth is round, and that the direction of the plumb-line is, therefore, not exactly the same at any two places. Astronomers and surveyors have now, however, very much more accurate instruments than the plumb-line and the eye, instruments by which the minutest deviations can be measured as well as detected. By the aid of astronomical observations the greatest distances can be determined with almost perfect precision. Without -the practical astronomer it would be impossible io make accurate maps of our own or any other country. TIMES AND SEASON. ■ But for the astronomer a knowledge, too, of times and seasons would not have been possible. From the changes of the moon they were able to find the. first month of the year just as the revolution of the earth round the central luminary has given them the year itself. We seldom think of the astronomical origin of the calenders and almanacs that are in daily use in common life. But in olden times there were no almanacs, and time was learned by patiently observing the movements of the conspicuous jstars. The dates of events in ancient history were found by reference to the chronological cycles of astronomy. Eclipses of the sun and moon were often the only means of fixing the dates of outstanding events. Even now a knowledge of past astronomical phenomena -helps us to find out the exact time when ancient events took place. The date of an occurrence that would otherwise be left in obscurity can sometimes be fixed by records that show that it happened at oj* near the time of an eclipse the date of which can be precisely determined.

Again, our forefathers had to regulate their clocks by a sun-dial, or, it may be, by a mark at th© corner of the house or other building, ■ showing where the shadow fell at mid-day. The method was crude enough, but, worse still, it was not certain. That it is not exactly twenty-four hours between two successive moons by the sun is known to the scientist, who understands also why and how, because of his knowledge of the behaviour of the heavenly bodies, is able to adjust matters in such a way as to secure practical and serviceable exactness. An astronomically regulated signal is used to set clocks so that they may be perfectly correct time-keepers. In that way, too, increased exactness is given everywhere to the time on railroads, while greater safety is obtained, and great loss of time is saved to all who make use of them. The motorist who spins merrily along the king’s highway seldom or never thinks of the relation between the mileage register on his instrument board and the heavenly bodies. COMPOSITION OF UNIVERSE. Besides all this, and better than all this, is the contribution astronomy has made to man’s discovery of the vast extent and nature of the universe. As an American astronomer of note says, “The more enlightened a man becomes the more he will feel that whatever makes his mind what it Is, and gives him the ideas he has of himself and creation, is more important than that which gains him wealth.” The greatest debt the world owes to astronomy Is that it has taught us what a wonderful scheme the Cosmos is, and what an insignificant part of the whole is th© earth. Modern astronomy has greatly enlarged our conception of th© size of tho universe. It is only when wo are brought face to face with the stars that we begin to know what our own tiny planet is. Religion, too, has profited immensely by the findings of modern astronomical research. A leading theologian expresses

himself as follows: “It would not be too much to say that the vision of the starry heavens at which the Psalmist gazed with such rapture long ago —“thick laid with patins of bright gold”—is to the immeasurable ranges of space that have been since opened to our view but as an ante-chamber to a palace. The stars he saw were only a handful of diamonds in comparison with the untold worlds of light that flash on. our startled eyes when our vision is enlarged by the telescope.

STARS UNFOLD THEIR SECRETS.

Not only has the old conception of a solid sky studded with brilliants given place to the vision of a liquid expanse absolutely trackless and-immeasurable, but the stars themselves have unfolded their secret majesty, and instead of proving to be tiny balls of light, have been resolved into galaxies of ordered worlds, in the midst of which our immense solar system is lost like a dewdrop on a landscape. Every step forward in astronomical science has increased this sense of amplitude, till the human imagination is quite powerless to take it in. Beyond the utmost reach of our imaginative grasp this vista of the physical universe stretches out on all hands, and when we have allowed our minds to fly out along the pathways of light opened to our inspection every starry night till we can do no more, we are oppressed by the thought that even then we have scarcely begun to realise the scope of the stupendous vision. This enlargement of the old parochial astronomy into the splendid outlook of the present day, while it is really a triumph of human intellect, has had a serious but an enlightening effect upon religious thought, and has brought home to the human soul a crushing sense of its insignificance and mortality. In the final issue this has meant great gain to theology as a corrective of narrowness and dogmatism. THE PROSE OF THE HEAVENS.

Astronomy has done signal service to mankind by delivering at least civilised peoples from the terrors that frightened men in times when eclipses have darkened the heavens or comets have stretched across the nightly skies. It taught men how to interpret these phenomena as without sinister meaning, and instead of creating alarm they are now matters of tremendous interest and pleasurable reflection, telling the story of the great, wonderful Order to which we belong in such a way as to thrill men and cause them to wonder and worship. Happy the man who keeps his heart open to the sweet influences of nature, and who remembers with Amiel that at whatever point on the earth he stands he is equally near to heaven and the Infinite. He will be ready to perceive with a noted journalist that the prose of the heavens surpasses the brightest poetry of earth.