OF CURRENT INTEREST

Taranaki Daily News, 22 June 1935, Page 13 (Supplement)

OF CURRENT INTEREST

UNIVERSE IN A 'HOUSE

(By

the Rev. B. Dudley, F.R.A.S.)

Planetariums are springing up in all parts of the world. One was opened recently (May 1) in the centre of the Hall of | Science, Griffith Park, Los Angeles. Another was expected to be ready on the 15th of the present month for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. An astronomer who has visited several of these buildings informs us that the illusion brought about as one sits beneath the great domes witnessing the universe at work, is without parallel. “When the artificial firmament flashes on the view of the astonished beholder, as clear and bright as it appears in the pure air of a clear night,” he states, “he has an impression of infinite space that fl is impossible to get away from. The sky shows the true black-blue colour, and the starry sphere has the same appearance that characterises its aspect in nature. So overpowering is this semblance of reality that it affects the trained astronomer among the audience equally with the layman.” He confesses that words fail him to describe the experience, and that nothing short of seeing' can convey any adequate idea of the performance. Professor E. Stromgren, of Copenhagen, Denmark, has called the Zeiss planetarium the “wonder of Jena.” Within these buildings events which take a day to complete, according to nature, can be gone through with almost perfect realism, in a single minute. Astronomical events requiring 26.000 years to work out in nature can be made to pass before the observer in four minutes. He can be transferred to the dawn of time or passed on to doomsday in a trice by the pulling over of a switch or lever. Sun, moon, planets, stars, nebulae, Milky Way, comets, all move true to the great cosmic order, to say nothing of solar and lunar eclipses, shooting stars, the zodiacal light, and aurora. There are in existence now 21 Zeiss planetariums. These are located in the following cites: Barmen, Berlin, Chicago, Dresden, Dusseldorf, The Hague, Hamburg, Jena, Leipzig, Los Angeles, Milan, Mannheim, Moscow, Munich, New Yor l -, Nuremberg, Philadelphia, Rome, Stockholm, Stuttgart and Vienna. We hear of one of these as having been attended by nearly .3,000,000 persons since it was opened to the public in May, 1930.

Retirement From Lick Observatory. On July 1 Robert Grant Aitken retires from his position as director of the Lick astronomical observatory/ after being in office since 1930. For 40 years he has been engaged on the staff of-this institution, rendering throughout efficient service, especially in matters connected (with the observation of double stars. On this subject it is doubtful whether there is anywhere in the world a more competent authority. His discoveries alone number about 3000. In his stead Dr. William Hammond Wright is to occupy the position of director. Dr. Wright also, has had a long association with the observatory, having been a member of the staff for 38 years. His strong point has been in. the direction of research in stars, and nebulae, and in the photography of the planets, particularly with infra-red light. This observatory was founded by James Lick, who died in 1876, and is situated at Mount Hamilton, California, 4200 feet above sea level. Connected with the observatory there is a population of about 50 persons in residence—shopkeepers, observers and their assistants, etc.

Pickering in “Popular Astronomy” for March gives some interesting particulars concerning the retiring director and his wife. Of the latter he says that she engaged him and his friends, when on a visit to Lick, with “stories of their early struggle to provide an education for their three boys and one girl in such a remote place; stories of the home Sabbath school, at one session of which, while explaining the creation of woman from man’s: rib, one of the youngsters asked, ‘Did Adam have to take chloroform?’” Mrs. Aitken’s ready wit, he states, would often cut across her husband’s quiet humour. Venus as a Crescent.

Recently something was said about the crescent Venus being seen by Mr. H. W. Cornell, of Milwaukee, as a naked eye object, the conditions being affected by looking at it accidentally through a column of steam issuing from a factory whistle. In reference to this Dr. F. W. Wood, of California, writes as follows: “In early January, 1934, I viewed the crescent Venus as it was near maximum. It was approximately 4.30 p.m. as I opened my garage for my automobile, and as I started to close the same I noticed Venus shining through a faint haze or ‘high’ fog as known out here. I was amazed at the clearness of Venus and saw a perfect crescent. I immediately called Mrs. Wood and she confirmed the same. I could easily observe the crescent from any place about the western part of our home lot. I took my eight-power binoculars and verified my naked eye observation. As it grew dark in the early twilight the crescent could not be seen , except with the telescope. This is the second time I have seen Venus as a crescent” (without ocular assistance)! Dr. Wood states that he makes it a practice in common with many experienced observers of this planet to study it in late afternoon and early twilight. More definite detail; it is found, is possible at such times. The planet is then still fairly high and not subject to the “boiling” caused by the passage of its light through the lower and denser atmospheric layers and fogs that often cling to the horizon. A Star-minded Poet. In his recently published volume, “The Unknown God,” Alfred Noyes quotes from his own poem, “The Last Voyage”: Here on earth The mind of man is like a little mirror, Reflecting what it fans, and no more. Carry it up the intellectual heights And it will show you parables one by one, In crag and pine and cloud. The wayside flower Will float within it, and the mountain eagle Gyre through its midget sky. It will reveal A dark earth-cleaving valley, a snowy peak Up-towering; each a fragment. The blind frame Of man's own mind shuts out the whence and why. Letters and words we read, not sentences Of the world’s volume .... single heiroglyphs, Not the vast epic of the eternal hills, Like armies of Archangels thundering home Into the mind of God. Those who have caught the significance of the trend of modern science and philosophy will find it set forth in many a line or stanza in this, the most starminded of present day poets; and will recall the words of Coleridge:— > We receive but what we give, And in, our life alone does Nature live.