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Fraunhofer's device of using a cylindrical lens for the purpose of giving a second dimension to stellar spectra was adopted by all, and was, indeed, indispensable. For a luminous point, such as a star appears, becomes, when viewed through a prism, a variegated line, which, until broadened into a band by the intervention of a cylindrical lens, is all but useless for purposes of research.
Then, in rapid sequence, a whole coterie of hitherto unsuspected minor planets is discovered, stellar distances are measured, some members of the starry galaxy are timed in their flight, the direction of movement of the solar system itself is investigated, the spectroscope reveals the chemical composition even of suns that are unthinkably distant, and a tangible theory is grasped of the universal cycle which includes the birth and death of worlds.
For the first time he was resenting morosely the necessity of preparing his own supper at the end of his journey, and he was nowise gentle in the roping of a fresh mount for the morrow's work on his arrival at the outlying camp, where he ate perfunctorily and without gust; despite his harsh fatigue a great restlessness sent him wide, with pipe in mouth, into the stellar splendor that beatifies every clear Colorado night.
We saw Stellar Lake, named by inspiration, for it looks a blue sky half full of stars; and I had my first sight of a fish hatchery. I'd no notion it could be so exciting to watch the career of trout from the egg stage up to rainbow maturity.
It became his dream, which was afterward realized, to possess a more powerful telescope, a real astronomical glass, with which he could see the beauties of the double stars, the craters of the moon, the spots on the sun, the belts and satellites of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, the extraordinary shapes of the nebulæ, the crowds of stars in the Milky Way, and the great stellar clusters.
You may sometimes see in freezing water small crystals of stellar shapes, each star consisting of six rays, with this angle of 60° between every two of them. This structure may be revealed in ordinary ice. In a sunbeam, or, failing that, in our electric beam, we have an instrument delicate enough to unlock the frozen molecules, without disturbing the order of their architecture.
The planets and stars of the entire solar and stellar universe, as seen by the great Lick telescope, if they were all in solid gold, would not nearly pay the amount. A single sphere to pay the whole amount, if placed with its centre at the sun, would have its surface extending 563,580,000 miles beyond the orbit of the planet Neptune, the farthest in our system.
The first, by Miss A. C. Maury, dealt with 681 bright stars visible in the northern hemisphere; the second, by Miss A. J. Cannon, with 1,122 southern stars. Both authors traced, with care and ability, the minute gradations by which the long process of stellar evolution appears to be accomplished. The progress of the Draper Memorial researches was marked by discoveries of an unexampled kind.
The evidence that the earth is motionless and the sun revolves around our planet, is as sensible and real as the evidence for disease; but Science determines the evidence in both cases to be unreal. To material sense it is plain also that the error of the revolution of the sun around the earth is more apparent than the adverse but true Science of the stellar universe.
With the speed of light a stellar voyage could be taken along the path of the Milky Way, which would endure for thousands of years. Through all the course the journeyer would perceive the same vast girdle of stars, faint because they were far away, which gives the dim light of our galaxy.
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