RIVERTON MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION.

Western Star, Issue 1678, 25 June 1892, Page 3

RIVERTON MUTUAL IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION.

A very successful meeting was held on Wednesday eyening when the President, Mr H. S. Tarlton, gave, in Men of 0 Cns J°“ presidential address, what might wall be termed a lecture on Astronomy. At the outset he said he did hot intend to delve deeply into the science, but hoped by giving a brief outline to induce some who have hitherto bestowed little or no attention to it, to make it a study, a study that would amply repay the time and labour expended on it* Such was the attention bestowed upon the earth that some people thought that the planets were made solely for our benefit At the same time, as our well-being is o ® fc wholly connected with our planetary system, that demanded our first attention. In th second century A.D. Ptolemy taught that the earth was the centre of the universe, an that the sun, moon, and_ p'anots revoke round it. His idea was briefly sketched, and then the lecturer spoke of the two wonderful instruments, the telescope and s P ecfcr ° ac . ope) bv means of which our knowledge had been Very much enlarged. The sun was next referred to as holding the strong reins of gravitation that guided all the planets so unerringly id their course We seldom realise, so familiar are we with the snn, what vast benefits it daily showers on us. Without it the earth would be a dark, fiozen, treeless, lifeless globe dashing through space to destruction. The enormous bulk and heat of the snn having been given, the theory tor the existence of sun spots was explained. _ it • is supposed that the light which the sun gives out is caused by the condensation of the outer particles, while the interior is almost non-luminous on account of the intense heat, and the theory is that the spots are holes in the luminous part, or photosphere, as it is 'called. These holeamay be eddies caused by the tremendous currents in the sun. Some of the “ spots ” were big enough to hold two or three of our worlds. Enormous explosions took place in the sun, which sent out fiery masses of vapour, generating hydrogen gas to the distance of 200,000 miles, and this in the space of twenty minutes. What a wonderful sight it would be could we view one of these convulsions, and see the constant rush of the torn and billowy surface of living fire ! Between us and the sun, a distance of 91 millions of miles, there are two planets, Mercury and Venus, the last being that bright gem we see alternately as morning and evening star, the most beautiful ana biHlia'nt in the sky. Next in order comes pur earth, with its satellite the moon, situated 226,000 miles from us. The moon possessed interest as being what, is ballad a dead world, though of this we cannot be certain. The side that is turned to us. and which is always the same, is a barren waste alternately burnt up and frozen in the day and night of one month s duration, having no atmosphere to temper the sun’s ravs. There appear to be enormous craters 10 miles in diameter as well as huge cracks in the moon, thought to have been caused by the surface shrinking from the cold. Evidences of oceans are to be seen, but there are no traces of water. There is a theory extant that the surface of the moon which we can see is so elevated that it is above the atmosphere, and that the centre of gravity is to one side, which has caused the water and air to flow to the side which is invisible to us. Ho gave that for what it was worth. Mars, which could be dis tinguished by its red colour, made a rovoluin 686 days. Jupiter bad a year of 4333 days. There was Saturn with eicht moons, and a wonderfully beautiful ring surrounding it like a halo, having a year of 10,000 days. Then came the Asteroids, Uranus, and Neptune, the last named being 3000 millions of miles from the sun. That was a • vast distance, but how could the distance that separated us from the fixed stars be described ? We southerners had ah least two things in our heavens to bo proud 0 f the nearest fixed star. Alpha Centauri, 'and the brightest fixed star, Sirius. Alpha Uentaxiri could be seen by those who looked last above the apex of the Southern Cross. This star was a jewel sufficient to induce astronomers to come from the northern hemisphere to see it, for not only is it a fixed Star but it is a double one. Light travels at

about 180,000 miles per second. With the wings of light we could reach the sun is about eight or nine minutes, and the nearest fixed star in about two and one-third years. So that the light by which we now see Sirius has left that planet twenty years ago, and for aught we know the planet may have ceased to exist. It seems incredible to believe that these stars are only waste worlds, but we canno' speak with certainty upon their use. The Nebulae having been described, the speaker said there were many puzzling things in connection with comets. He would give three. (1) Faint, stars could be seen through their tails, which were millions of miles in length ; (2), travelling in orbits very eccentric, they can have very little weight, as they do not seem to affect the planets near them, although the planets affect them ; (3), when approaching the sun the tail is behind, yet as it rounds the sun in an instant of time it precedes the head or nucleus. The telescope tells us nothing about the comets, and the spectroscope informs ns that the head does give out a faint light. Meteors were next referred to as being small pieces of metal which, coming within the attraction of our earth, rush towards it, causing so much friction in our atmosphere that unless very large, they become consumed before they reached the earth. In this connection it was stated that it was thought that comets were groups of meteors. The lecturer closed an instructive address by quoting Richter’s lines on time and space, which, in poetic language, enlarged on the text “ Behold on a narrow neck of land I stand bounded by two eternities.”

After the paper had been briefly discussed, Messrs Akhurst and Twemlow read prize essays on the Riverton harbour. The former gave, an imaginative description of what Riverton would be if a harbour were constructed. The latter, by fact and figure, showed that we should have a harbour if Riverton desired to become a town of importance. They were both very interesting, and were provocative of not a little amusement..