NOT RECOGNISED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20110, 31 March 1928, Page 6

NOT RECOGNISED

ASTRONOMER’S VIEWS LIGHT THROWN ON EARLY THEORY. [ Per Press AsFoe’ition. J RAWER A, March 30. “If the reported observation that Nova Pictoris now consists of two stars is substantiated, it practically establishes the partial impact theory of Professor A. W. Bickertoii, late Professor of Physics at Canterbury College. If so, it is an honour to New Zealand,” said Air P. O’Dea, F.R.A.S., and member of the council of the New Zealand Astronomical Society, when interviewed to-day regarding the observations at Johannesburg, as cabled. Professor Bickerton, continued Mr O'Dea, like all other pioneers—was looked on as a faddist —and his views had not received recognition. In fact, his election to the Royal Astronomical •Society was even turned down. His theory was that two suns dashed past each other, forming a grazing impact, and blazing up into great brillance. This is evidently what happened to Nova Pictoris in 1926-27. It blazed up into a star of first magnitude, then slowly receded in brilliance. Al any observations were made by Air G. AL Townsend at the Hawcra Observatory, and the spectrum of its light viewed in the spectroscope was a very peculiar phenomenon.