Doe This Iadee The Astronomical Work ‘of Galileo Galilei The Double Star 61 Cygni é How to Meet the Fifth Column in Astronomy Graphic Time Table of the Heavens—1942 Late Photos from Manila ; | The Starry Heavens in January * ‘Vol. L No. $ JANUARY, 1942 20 conts Galileo. Galilei (4564-1642),ASTRONOMY AND WAR From an interview with Dr. Rey K. Mershall, of The Pronblin Institute Stall HE most obvious relation Between as fronomy and military science. les, of course, in the specialized fiells. Any pro: fessional astronomer could. at once serve as a ballistics expert. Men who have worked in optics are invaluable at the present timc. ‘Theodore Duaham, for ex Ample, is devigaing Schmidt cameras for aerial photography, and for ssc in ant Aircraft explosion photography. ‘These are the fields we should think of immediately, Ihue there ate many ways in which an anna teur's knowledge of the stars, the st and the moon can help. ‘The British government has asked any- fone owning a planisphere to send it to headquarters for use-by airplane watchers A night-watcher, with his motith toa tele phone, looks for enemy planes. If he can Feport the constellation in which the plane appears, the position of the attacker can be determined at once, and anti- aircraft fre set up. Knowledge of Stellations is helpful, also, in field work, where directions are not always clear ‘Phe moon plays an important part in ‘illitary operations. “Tt is important to know the motions of the moon, the times of rising and setting at each phase. Law- rence of Arabia, in the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, tells of an attack made by a ‘marauding band of Arabs, under his lead- ‘ership, upon a town. He had ordered the datiack, anid the Arabs had declined, saying that the moon was full. The inhabitants of the town were unprepared, believing that the fall moon would protect them What they did mot know, and Lawrence did, was that there was to be an eclipse of ‘the’ moon. The omtpoxt was taken The question of sunrise and sunset, of ‘eotrse, is to0 obvious to dwell upon. But a Knowledge of sunspots, with the possible resulting auroras, is a refined detail we ‘might not think’ of. "When. the "Royal Oak" was sunk, the report brought con: firmation by the statement that the ships were sithouetied against the Northern “Lights, and the biggest one had been torperloed, Every British naval officer is required to have a copy of a book called The Mili tary Uses of Astronomy. ‘This litle work gives an outline of astronomy, with thumb- ‘ial rules for telling degrees, measuring the distance ofthe horizon froma the height ‘of the observer, telling time, and other ‘things useful to'men sn the Beld Most of the facts needed for the ape ‘ation of astronomy to war ean be learned in-a short time, by people who have never “Thad any particular’ interest inthe stars But the value of these facts should be _acle known before there is too little time to learn thet Reprinted from Tue Onsinven “Defense “ssi” November. 1941, published by the Amateur Astronemers’ of The Franklin and TELESCOPE Editor Canyriake, 198%, by Canes A. Feoearn, Ja, Hues Spexce Feouan..Maneping Editor EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Clement S. Brain, Amsiew: Aronomars Assocation. Now York Edvord A. Halbech, Mises Astronomical Secty Dokl i. Mena. Heer Gsloge Oberst: haul W. Marl Mt. Wien Obsetrtore Oba Ex Metal ets Obrerers: Hemy Nore Rawal, Fincaion Unvoniy Gluanatens Chases He Slay {2dd"Sbronetery: arey We Withee, Bond Avonomice! Ca. The Editors Note... ‘OW that we are at war, we must ea the attention of our readers and of amateur astronomers in particular to the enough professional astronomers to. ‘watch for one city, and besides, there’sno senge in using them for such a purpose.” Novemer “Defense Taste” of The Ob- server, published by the Amateur Ac- Last month we published an eclipse tronomers of The Franklin Institute, report fron amateur astronomer Foster Philadelphia. So pertinent to the present situation are the contents of this four page bulletin, that in the adjoining col lama, we reprint one article ‘Without doubt, every society of ama teur astronomers cowld make a Hist of its members now actively engaged in de- fense “doing work that they have ether learned, o become interested jn, as | result of their aliiation with the society, The AALFL's own lst is imposing, bout the message brought with it is most important: “.. the interrelation be- tween the amateurs and the professionals Gaeiense workers) i too comples for a complete separation, The one can con tribute vastly to the other, and in these times of urgent need, both must work together.” And further, “Amateurs ean supply one thing that the National Ros- ter, with its professional personnel, can’t give—aumbers! You can't find D. Brunton, of Agana, Guam, and in this number (pp. 12413), from Father Pablo Guzman-Kivas, at the Manila Observa: tory, appear photographs of the recent feccuitation of Mars. We can but hope that these contributors are safe and well, and still astronomically active With regard to her statement ia the Ladies’ Home Journal, which we men- tioned last month, Mrs. Eleanor Roose velt recently wrote inher newspaper column, "My Day," in part "E have just been sent a report written by Dr. Bart J. Boke and Margaret Mayall, Both of them are astronomers and the report is written 0 prove that too many people put faith in astrologers, ‘They take me to task for wot having heen firmer in an answer to a question. Team only say that I fear T have never taken any form of fortune telling, very serionsly Vou. I, No. 3 CONTENTS JaNuaRy, 1942 COVER: A portrait of Galilee which wai fist printed in is book on sunspots [Reference 2). and sed agein os.» fonfspiece in variow othar books The cherub oe the. eit lds one. of ry compasses.” The ote on the ight holds one of Galles ‘tty farm ware humpatthapes. (See article an page 3] THE ASTRONOMICAL WORK OF GALILEO GALILEI (1564-1642), Bernard Cohen 3 THE DOUBLE STAR 61 CYGNI—K. As, Stand HOW TO MEET THE FIFTH COLUMN IN ASTRONOMY—W. Cu) ufos 2 The Herotcope of W. Catl Rufus " LATE PHOTOS FROM MANILA 2 ‘GRAPHIC TIME TABLE OF THE HEAVENS—1942 “4 Graphic Porrayal of Celestial Events—Cavoll F. Mewiom 6 Amateur Asronomers 18 Gleanings for ATMs n ‘Attronomical Anscdtes 19° Hare and There with Amateurs n Beginners Page a ooks ond the Sky Ps De You Know? a BACK COVER: Saturn, photowraphad by Bx tor at Mt Wil, SKY AND TELESCOPE is pablatel mopehi, by Sey Pstlahing Corporation. Pebleaion ee fe New Rocnes Nira atl peers sien” sean Clee ‘Sineeaor Comune Nace craton 42D rear the United Sate in pesat ene” Ske ceca anit ned “one Eee alta! ‘ity ai the’ Paste, Boston, Ssachase apie for Act ot ilarDIALOGO Det GALILEO GALILEI LINCEO MATEMATICO SOPRAORDINARIO DELLO stvpio DI Pisa. E Filofifoy ¢ Matemstco primario deb | GR.DVCADITOSCANA. | Dovenei coped qua ome faire MASSINI SISTEM DEL Mow ‘TOLEMAICO, ECOPERNICANO, eS Prpomensinderminatomet ie agin Fife «Natali Sats Fema guns pr alr fate IN HORENZA, Per Gist Landini MDCRXSI MERE. Sissi Pn flat ce of Galileo's great treatise on the Coy the Prolemaic. (Reference 3.) His name appears a+ “G aber of the "Lince,” the Society of L ich group ‘book. It was written in the hows engaged in active ok is concerned THE ASTRONOMICAL WORK OF GALILEO GALILEI (1564-1642) By I, Berwarp Conen ‘The title page and fron Linceo indicating that he was a Fellow of the Carnegie Institution of Washington NUARY 8, 1042, marks the 3ooth present article is devoted mainly to that therefore, to “demonstrate” that the “mew anniversary of the death of one of the subject. star” was no star at all but an illusion—a test astronomers that ever lived, Galileo's discoveries in mechanics alone “collection of vapors” in the sky, or some SUE Gals dicta Bemuary % (described by him chilly in Reference 4) thing like an ac 1643, Gregorian (the syle 0 tile him to an important p used at that time in Italy) ry of science, But since he turned his Galileo, glad to find ck older astronomical thought, gave three public lect lendar Within. a ice in the an opportunity to at year of his death, Isaac Newton was bors, talents to astronomy, let us now sce what which he showed that this new star was ‘0p December 25, 1642, Julian (the calendar results those talents were able to achieve. like all other stars except in s0 far as it 1d), which was January Galileo's interest in astronomical matters was “new,” # nova ), Thus there was con was aroused by a “new hich was already come to doubt the laws Tinuiey in the current of scientific genius, scen in the sky on October 10, 1604. This ics as taught by Aristotle; now Galileo's career andl Newton's are similar nova was the most brilliant object in the he had further evidence ot the in fn many ways—both made important con- heavens with the possible exception of of Aristotle's dicta concerning tributions 10 mathematics, physics, theo- Venus, and it aroused a great deal of at- matters. We know that he @ fetical astronomy, the use of scientific in- tention, just as an earlier one’ had done ardent advocate of the ( Siruments—of the telescope in particular, im 1573, when Tycho Brahe was attracted as opposed to the Ptolemsta, becuse of And both made vital contributions to the to astronomy by the nova observed in letter which he wrote to Kepler in August tnderstanding of what science is, what its Cassiopeia. Aristotle had taught that the of 1597, some years eurlict- Kepler fed ado. Read- heave J could not requested that Galileo read his writings however, have chan; reated and Galileo replied, “This I will do all the reason to be chiefly concerned with Gal- nor destro rs of more gladly, since T adopted the opiaion ileo's achievements as astronomer, and the Aristotle Prolemy were concerned, of Copernicus many year’ ago; and from Sky Ann Trtescore 3such a standpoint I have arrived at ox planations of many phenomena of nature which, without doubt, arc inexplicable according to the more usual fie, Prole ‘maic] hypothesis Bt the most important event in Galileo's ‘areer as astronomer occurred in 1609. He writes: ‘Ten months ago, reas, a rumor came to ‘our cas that an opal instrament had een elaborated by 4 Dutchman, by the aid of which visle objet, cren though far dv fant fom the eye of the oberer, were distintly seen as if near at hands and some stories of this marrclos effect were banded About, to which some. gave credence and which others denieh ‘The same wa con: Famed Yo me a few days alter by + eter seat from Pars by the muble Prenchan Jacob Bavodete, which at length war the reason tat {applied myself enely to sek fg out the theory and covering the means by which I mighe ave at the invention of 4 similar instrament, ahead whit Tataned 4 lite later, tom ccidertons of the tear St refsetons and I fin prepared a ne of Nea in the cay of which Ted two glans Nemes, both plane on, o0e sie, one being terclly conver he other enacare, on the othe side With these words did Galileo begin his book entitled The Starry [or Sidereal| Messenger (Relerence 1) in which he de scribed what he had accomplished by means of the new instrument. The 10 this book is dated March 4, 16 Galileo's invention, or reinventi telescope was apparently made in June or July of 1609, The early form of Galileo's telescope appears. to have been teumpet- shaped, as may be seen from the illustra tion on the front cover, but Later he made tse of a straight leaden tube, The Starry Meisenger begins with a description of the moon, the first object ‘of Galileo's telescopic: attention. His it strument was not sufficiently powerful to show much detail; it was hardly as effec: tive as a bettergrade modern field glass Yet, until this time, no one had seen the moon magnified at all, and most astron comers believed it to be a smooth globe— lear and perfect as befited a celestial ob ject: Many explanations of the. “apparent” dark spots had been invented—a typical example is in Dante's Paradiso, Canto Il Gableo noticed many smaller markings on the moon's surface, and correctly iden tified the bright spots scen near the ter tinator as mountain tops shining in the suolight, while the surrounding lunar arca is still in darkness. With precision and ingenuity characteristic of his research, he calculated the height of the more conspicu ‘Ou mountains on the moon, estimating that the largest must be in the neighbor hhood of four miles high, a gure closely ageecing with modern observation and caleulation. But the most important purt of his observation was the fact that the moon greatly resembles the earth, having mountains and rough spots, and large dark spots which he thought (erconcously) were duc to the presence of water, and © 4 Sky ann Texxscore in Cancer, denen bby him in the thus named “seas.” He doubted the ex istence of lunar seas, however, in a later book (Reference 3). He next turned his telescope to the fixed stars, and found that the glass did not appreciably magnify the size of the stars, but that it appeared to increase their num- ber vastly. Thus he was able to se many stars, the view of which had been denied to his predecessors. Galileo was able to count 36 stars in the Pleiades, while un. aided vision reveals only seven’ He found that poctions of the Milky Way and cer tain nebulous patches of light consist of multitudes of faint stars grouped together in cluster In the duster Pracsepe in the Crab, to cite one example, he counted two ‘The greatest of Galileo's discoveries he recounted last; it concerns the four new “planets” which he described as “never scen from the first beginning of the world until our time, On January 7, 1610, Galileo turned his telescope toward Jupiter. He noticed that it presented a round appearance much like the sun and the moon; its disk was of ‘greater magnitude than the inferior planets, but, save for the matter of size there was no apparent difference between the inferior planets and the superior planets On lose examination, he noticed three very sinall but bright “stars” in the vi cinity of Jupiter, two to the east of the planet, and one to the west. He imagined them to be fixed stars, but he could not hhelp but be struck with the unusual fact aod” shoon woe called that they were straight line which was parallel to celiptic. Chancing, by merest accident, look again at Jupiter the following nigh he was surprised to find that these “stars.” sill arrayed. in a straight fs wre all oF thom to the west of the plate and nearer to each other than the preeed- ing np As i, ome emcee that Jupiter had got in advance of the stars by means of it proper motion and posed with Jupiter ina that its motion might therefore be “dt rect.” But he was unable to test this ‘wpporton on the next night owing 1 And so he had to wait another night. ‘Then on January roth, he observed only two “stars,” now to the cast of Jupiter, and he supposed that the third was eon cealed by the planet itself, At this point he was unable to account for the phe. nomenon by means of the motion of Jupiter, and he wondered whether the uyparent motions should be referred to the “ears” themselves, rather than tothe planet. Here wat'a matter of great im: Portanes and he decided gine On the sith, he again saw cwo “stars” to the east of the planet, but one now — appene ice a ge asthe other, This fact, together with the constant change of the position of these “stars” relative Jupiter, and the complete. disappearance fof one of them, gave him the key to their real character: ‘There are three “stars” revolving around Jupiter just asthe planets revolve around the sun in the Copernican system, On the 12th, Galileo saw three “sar,” again, but on the r3th of January, hae finally saw four of them. On the 14th he again saw four. His futute observations left no doube that these were satellites of Jupiter Soon after the publication of his book, Galileo discovered the existence of un spots. Although he was probably the first person to see spots on the sun, he was not the frst wo publish his observations, He The surface of the moon ax seen by 6 pletured by” bien in his Starry Messenger, |them in Padua early in 1610, but did a pol an account ofthe wnt 1613 . 2). Their existence was of double interest to Galileo. Firs, they BE in tat the son was nt pe fect, asthe older astronomers had taught, ut was covered with imperfections. Sec” rom the movement of these spot, was convinced that the sun rotates about its axis, and calculated its period ‘The satellites of Jupiter as observed on suceestive nights by Galileo. These pic: tures are the firt ever mide of Jupiter ‘moons, (From Reference 1.) 4 In the telescope’the fixed stars ap- peared as mere luminous points, xo that the appareat diameters of several minutes ‘of are, atributed to them by previous ob- servers; were proved to be nonexistent” 5. The discovery of the sucllites of Jupiter presented Nature's model of the ‘Copernican system in operation, and put an end to the difficulty raised’ by those tho asked why the moon alone formed an exception tothe general rule by moving Around a planet instead of around the sun. {6 The discovery of sunspots supplied 2 striking refutation of the Aristotelian doe- trine of the perfection of celestial objects, and indicated that the sun, like the earth and moon, rotated about its axis 7. The discovery of the phases of Venus showed that the fixed stars and the sun alone emit light of their own, while the Planets are nonluminous. ‘Thus the fixed stars, “Wo use the words of [Giordano] ‘Brono, are suns, the planets are moons or earths,” as Kepler wrote with joy to Galileo, the Copernican system represented the only true picture of the solar system, Galileo spent the years from 1625 t0 1625 ‘riting a treatise that he intended to be “the sum and culmination” of his life's ae Dee eee Dison concerning the Two Principal Systems of the World, the Ptolemaic and the Coper~ rican (Reference 3). Despite the avowal ff impartiality and even of favor to the Prolemaic system, this book was an effec- tive and. crushing atack on Ptolemaic astronomy and a convincing, proof of the Copernican system, ‘The result, as everybody Knows, is that Galileo was brought before the Inquisition, and there did he “abjure, curse, and de- test” his “errors and heresies” while his book was placed on the Inder. ‘The In ‘quistors were relatively lenient; they al- Towed him to teach and to continue with his work, and he not only wrote his Dis Togues on Two New Sciences (Reference )y but he was able to make another astronomical discovery, namely, the libra- tion of the moon. (See Observers Page.) Galileo was the final victor. His works ‘were eventually removed from the Inder and a Vatican’ Observatory was founded. Whether or not Galileo actually in- vented the telescope, or whether, as he Thy, accerding to Drees, “ewept away the ‘Translations, “vol. I 1661). A new edition of tion is being prepared by Prof. Giorgio Diaz de Santillana of MIT, and will be issued by the Columbia University Press 4. Discorsi ¢ dimostrazioni matematiche intomo a due nuove scienze.. Ceyden, 1638), Dialogues concerning Two New Scl- ‘ences by Galileo Galilel Translated by Henry Crew and Alfonso de Sal- vio. (New York, 1914; New York, 1933; Evanston, Til, 1940). ANNIVERSARIES in 1842, many ‘of astronomical importance oc- oO the following: “Doppler's principle of the change of re- frangibilty of ight by motion announced, ‘Conclusion of Bail hing the earth “July &. Total solar eclipse. Corona and prominences observed by Airy, Baily, Arago, and Struve.” Fifty years later, in 1892, we find First trustworthy results of application experiments in of Doppler’s principle to. the stars— Vogel's radial velocities of SI stars The discovery by Anderson of Nova Aurigae, prototype of Nova Hercalis, 1534 The first photographie discovery of @ comet, by Barnar CChandier’s interpretation of the in equalities of Algot’s light period as caused by presence of a th Zdenek Kopal will di and Telescope in th visible star. (Dr. vast Algol in Sky Sky Np Triascore 5“OF STEEMED SIR:—Having succeeded 1) in obtaining 2 long-looked-for re sult, and presuming that it will interest so\great and zealous an of the heavens as yourself, I take the liberty ‘of making a communication to you there upon. Should you consider this commun ation of sufficient importance to lay before other friends of have no objection, These are the opening words of a leter dated October 23, 1834, in which is de scribed how the first distance measure ot real scientific val The leter, in England, was write heli Bessel, direct Kanigsherg, Germany. The instrument used was a so-called helfometer built in 1836 by the famou German optician, Fraunhofer. A detaile description of this type of telescope would bbe beyond the scope of this article. Briel it is a refractor with the objective cut into halves which car be shifted with respect Astronomy, T not only ‘was obtained for a star dressed to Sir John Herschel by Friedrich Wil: ‘of the observatory in to each other by means of precision screws Bessel’s success showed the # the h the early type micrometer for the special field of arcs on the celestial sphere, Oaly the mod fern method of photography with long focallength telescopes has surpassed the heliometer in accuracy The star chosen by Bessel for his inves: tigation was 61 Cygni, a double star of the sth magnitude in the constellation of the Swan. This object had already. at tracted attention in 1806 when the Italian astronomer, Pinzzi, discovered ally large proper motion (52 for which reason it became known “flying. star.” In 360 years a across the celestial sphere equals the ap parent diameter of the moon, the largest known angular motion until discovers in this century broughe it down to fifth place, the largest known proper liometer aver the meridian circle and This was 6 Sky Axo Tetescore THE DOUBLE STAR 61 CYGNI By K. Aa. Srranp Sproul Observatory, Swarthmore College One of the 19ih century's greatest astronomers (17841046), Besides his many" contsibutions to fundamental of the parallax of 6 Cygai, his di fry. of the variable proper motion of Sirius and Procyon, Bessel fs famous for his work in geadery andl geophysic motion now being that of the soth-magni tude star discovered by E. E. Barnard. Barnari’s star has a proper motion of 10" annually, of almost twice that of aware of the fact that previ fous unsuccessful attempts to measure stl lar parallax simply indicated the smallness of this quantity even for relatively nearby stars, and that in order to met with suc ‘is, a star should be chosen which was likely to have a sensible parallax. Modern research has revealed that the range in ‘much less than the brightness. ‘The proper motion ofa star is, therefore, a faitly good critetion of distance, Bessel’ choice ofthis criterion was rewarded, He found the distance of 61 Cygni to be 3.10 parsecs light-years) with an accuracy of 1 Bessel’s first smaller than As carly as 3 61 Cygni was observed ble sear by Bradley at the Green The observed separ asad wich Observatory thon of the two com ‘of arc and theit position angle 35 is the angle at the primary star between the direction of the ‘companion and that of the north celestial pole; it is measured counterclockwise trom rhoeth th around the circle.) Twenty-five years later (1778) Cristian Mayer, a Jesuit astronomer’ from Mann heim, "Germany, observed the star and found that the separation had decreased to 15 seconds of are and the position angle had in When Bess raved to 51 degrees observed the star in 1812, the separation seconds of are and the pos 9 degrees, thus establish be rela was about 1 tion angle was 7. tive motion of the components carly These abservations were m: Not far from the bright star Deueb, a the tsp of the Northern Cro¢s, is 61 ty Wt for which ebisiaed. Tels Kin ire), the fist reliable dis Harvard ‘Observatory iments of rather primitive construction and Jo not possess any high degree of accuracy, se that deviations of several degrees in position angle and a few seconds of are in distance from the actual values can be expected. Visual observations of a much higher degece of accuracy were not ob: tained until 1824 when F, G. W. Steuve, in Dorpat, Russia, started his micrometer ‘observations of the relative positions of double stars with a t0:inch refractor con. structed by Fraunhofer. In spite ofthe fact century ago they ate wnwuepassed in ac curacy by the best modera visual observa During the roth century large time to doublestar observations and a list of the observations made of 61 Cygni re veals the names of all the outstanding observers, Besides Bessel and W. Struve we find men like O. Struve, Kaiser, Macdler, Dembowsky, Dunér, H, Struve Asaph Hall, and Schiaparell The micres pair as 61 Cygni have now been entirely replaced by a photographic method giving mes as small as those of method measures of such a wide the best visual observations. The was developed by the Danish astronomer; Ejnar Hertzsprung, in 1914, and has been fully described by the writer ia a recent article in The SKY (May, 1951). For 61 ‘Cygni extensive material of this high ac at_hand covering the period The plates have been taken aege visual refractors of the with thPERIASTAON 1600 ‘seo components was ing the 1oth century. On ac- ‘count of the wide separation, the obverved ‘motion has been rather slow, and moreover, has only shown a very slight ‘curvature. This had led to the belie that ‘the two stars were without physical con~ rection, but had slightly different motions ‘in different depths of space. The prob- ability for such an arrangement is ex- tremely small, but it was accepted by astronomers even up to the begin- ing_of this century, athough N.C. 1876, vas able 10 Right: 20" OBE SSEL ine observ oo mavER, 790 oo oeRao.ey The dots represen Bveyear means of the visual observa: tions, the symbol (><) rep- resents photographic obser. The of 61 Cygni from 1910 iMlustrates the superior ac of the photographic ioms. The yearly means of the photographic positions () deviate very Title from the computed eight B : inclination to the line of sight, wwe do not know which end is tipped: ward us; this must be determined fron gris itance (semi-axis major) of true obit (2), in seconds of are, ‘of reyolution (P) in years and the ‘of the system (p), the total mass of the system in terms of the sun's mass is equal to a'/p' + 1/P* (Kepler's third law). ‘The practical solution of the of the orbital motion in the ease of 61 Ho vation 1920 1910 Sky ano Teuescore 7wists sis26 sem { N ‘Cygai is hindered by the fact that only a small part of the orbit is covered by ac: ‘curate observations; moreover, the obser ational material islé is not at all homo geneous as far asthe accuracy is concern Previous investigations by the writer have shown that the visually abscrved distances are frequently affected by systematic errors even though they are the means of man tbservers as in the preset cate. It was, therefore, of importance that these dis tances could be excluded from the compu tations since the photographic observations gave a highly accurate value for the ateal Yelocity. ‘The orbit was thus determined from the photographic postions and the visually observed postion angles. ‘The writer has no intention to give in this anicle a detailed account of the cab- ‘orate computations recently carried on at the Sproul Observatory by Miss Burger in creer to obtain a full discussion of the problem. It should be mentioned, how: ‘ever, that no less than 20 different orbits ‘were tried out, testing periods of revolu tion from 550 years up to 850 years. These ‘computations showed clearly that without ee ee any ‘accuracy could have been obtained at the present time, ‘The results of the computations are as follows: The true orbit is an ellipse with 19395 ae The heliocentric positions of the two components at three different epochs. on le of the Sproul ee The’ positions for Rotherfard plat been transformed to. the scale ofthe Inter Sproul ob- ions. ‘The reference tars 1, 2 and 3 are those Jn van dle Kemp's re: eat determination of the rmass-ratio and parallax. an eccentricity of 41 and an angular mean distance of 24:64 seconds of arc. The period of revolution was found to be 720 years; the closet approach of the com: ponents (periastron passage) occurred in 1690. ‘The uncertainty of the petiod is not likely wo exceed 10 years either way. We shall now transform the angular dimensions of the orbit into absolute values by using an adopted parallax of o”-294, or a tance of 1 lghe ears this al is ‘on all modern photographic parallax determinations. The mean dance ofthe true orbit then becomes 24 64/204 = 838 AU, (one astronomical unit is equal to the distance sunearth) and the total mass of the syste is 1.16 tat of the sun, Re- cently, Dr. Peter van de Kamp has made a provisional determination of the ratio of the two masses fom photogeaphie mater exclusively. His result would give mases fof 073 and 0.43 that of the sun for the two components. The difference in mass is probably less than these walucs indicate, bb i is clear that both stars are less mas- sive than our sun—which isto be expected since both stars are ced dwarls. with Iuminosities of only 7/100 and 4/109 that ‘of the sun ‘The present separation of the com- ponents i110 A.U., which is nearly three times the distance of Plato from the sun. “The pare voce a 1 te ecny of ror ae tao, Ar te nee ope the sus ese ou U0 oe nie ely 3 toe cs al erg AU, and their relative vly be a4 km. fs Radial vlety determinations show the system appecaching our sla at te mic of 1 AU, per ear (aa c). Thus the dimension of the Ppa orbit are increing adsl duc 6 pepenire cf Ge thresh dc ppg ih ingore perce ics aa fet ct for ch reyhaion, ie thatthe presen spaation (about 36 cove of are) wil have faceted by ics Oo cxnpucie cars te Poston ine bgt te pone whe coe tecetioned an adusnnent for ca the obervaons to one and the sme ep Fo ans eee ae 20 fa to be increas by the amount fot which, bs twice We eee wthich the photorapic laos ae kag “Tee ate bee we ele the pracier of thind conpeneee me sytem giving se to pesturtstion in the cx tote. Tn spite of them i pies scarey, the eget token by Hertesprung andthe writer have tt hewn any tgs of prtnbtion Tres Ugh toe prea sage a been cole the aris bing kept on te cheng pope le See sro. St piney ales eh ye Joc pith macal eee e promt ie data ct pene Shall os oFora For camppl, we would be ale to find a satire revolving around cart Oi copumean er eel to that of Jupiter (12 years), even if is mma would be no more den. sx tes that of Jape, 6/00 that of the su, Oy OU 1. Score four points Jor cack question correcly answered, and one point Jor cach question where you do not attempt 10 select the anster. 1. Ona January evening in the northern sates you woud not expeet se the Constellation 2 Pisces © Pegasus 4 Orion 4. Libra Ti the crescent moon is seen at mid- right, it cannot be 4 eastof the observer Is west of the observer © ear the zenith 4. near the horizon A comet which broke into two parts 2 Halley's «©, Donati's b. Bielas a. Herschel's ‘The lenath of « degree of latitude at the equator is ann Tasscore KNOW? By L. J. Larevr a. 69:4 miles 76.3 miles 1. 736miles 80.4 miles 5, There is no Ist= of 2nd-magnitude Hercules © Ophiuchus b. Hydra a. Eridanus 6. A tellarie line is a spectroscopic tine a. due to the interference of radio bs. originating in the «arth’s atmos phere & found originally in the spectrum of Saturn's rings 4. of tellin 7. A thousandth of a millimeter ie indi- cated by the symbol ak BM ck hae 8 One of the following is not a Sure of equilibrium for a homogencous ro: tating body a. sphere «prolate spheroid 1. oblate spheroid pear-shaped figure 9. An annular eclipse occurs a. every year 1 when the moon is mear apogee © only near the equator 4. when the moon is full 10. One of the following constellations lies om the ecliptic a. Ursa Minor c. Canes Veuatied by. Pisces 4 Lepus 1H. Each of the jllowing figures is im portant im atronomy. Can you identify them? Count five points for cach one identified. 2512 OM OSSIOUT 868,100. 28 1 256 Il, A number of steps are required in the solution of the following problem. Partial credit will be allowed, (Total credit, 30 points.) the earth’s diameter were halwed, its average density and the density of the atmosphere remaining -constant, how high could the ordinary man jump? (Answers on page 21)HOW TO MEET THE FIFTH COLUMN ” IN ASTRONOMY By W. Cant Rurvs, University of Michigan Obseroatory We present the text of a talk given by Prof. Rufus before the Detroit Astronomical Society on October 12th. His own horoscope, which he drew and decoded before that audience, is included too. FY interest in astrology is due to an ‘attempt to be professionally co- tive. Michigan Papyrus No. , Rufos, gn ‘inating, if tue, although at some points very. complimentary, te of heard a conversation regard Die eae wicdcedies in the dane jor invested in a reading. Again profes Sonal altruism prompted me to rh in. devised by the ingenuity of human fagencics and one man has just as much fight this system as another. In that ‘way in a. democratic country, if the as twologers do not predict its downfall, we ‘an enjoy the application of astrology + 4 game or as an amusement without pay jing for it and without taking it too serously, We recall the amusing method used by Swift, the great English satirist. Io his brochure, “Prediction for the Year 1708 bby Tsaar Bickerstafl, Esq,” he begins by displaying great confidence in the art and claims knowledge of 2 superior method Then he proceeds: “My first. prediction « «refers to Partridge, the almanac maker T have consulted the stars of his nativity by my own rules and find that he will infallibly dic upon the agth of March next about eleven at night of a raging fever. “Therefore 1 advise him to consider of it and setle his affairs in time.” Swift fllowed this by a letter to a well known Englishman giving an account of the death of Partidge on the day and rear the hour predicted. The victim pro- tested that he was alive and induced a fiend to bear witness with 2 pamphlet. ‘Then Partridge published his 1709 al- smanac, which Swift termed irrelevant evi- dence: “for Gadburg, Poor Robin, Dove ‘and Way do yearly publish ther almanacs, though several of them have been dead since before the Revolution.” ‘Amusement and satire are not suficient, however, for this discussion. T would not feel justified in ridiculing or condemning that which Ido not understand. A sien tist, even an astronomer, must look upon astrology from an objective point of view, ashe docs on other human inventions and activites. He must consider its claims ‘honestly and openly without bias or pre udice. He must accept its long history, its carly origin and ra ess, its cloak leh nog poe affairs in the Far East, its dominating in- ocnce at European ‘courts during. the medieval period, its practice by outstnd. nf xientsts up to the 17th century, and its tenacious grip on, the popular mind even to the present day. Recently, 8 London reporter stated in his daily broadcast that astrology is in- ‘The fromispiece of « hook published in London in Partridge was the astrologer whose death creasing in influence in England and is more potent in developing wae 5 in the stacks of the University a large number of volumes on the subj Astrology has been hailed as the fore: runner of astronomy. Probably it would be more accurate to say that they origi- nated together and there was no indication Tee ergin is los in antiquity. In an attempt to. explain its early accept the idea that primitive man ob- terved the ring and sting sun, enjoyed the warmth of the day, and attributed benevolent virtue to this most conspicuous heavenly body. Soon the moon and the planes ese, sd tthe pode othe indent world. The natural te periods of the day, the mooth, and the yea, marked the recurrence of observable phe” But the week as a time wnit has no such bass, Ts origin seems to have been 90, Jahn had predicted SUPPLEMENT PLACIDUS DE TET US: oLrveR choMWELE Mi JOHN PARTRIDGE, MD- pRIMUM MOBILE,an astrological counterpart of the fnomical phenomena. ‘The seven for moving bodies of the ancients, begin hing with the most remote Jupter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury Moon, ‘The sin, more digant than the toon, had greater influence, Saturn the tout distant, was assigned first in the established order. It was made the ruler Of the fire hour of the firs. day of the week, Anigning the succenive hours of the day to the planes in the exabished order, the first hour of the second day belonged to the sun. ‘The fist hour ofthe third day belonged to the moon. Contin ing. the process 1 is easy to se that there wll follow Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus. ‘The English names of the first three days remain recognizable—Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, You mnay trace the athers in various languages. ‘The week of feven days constitutes a permanent mon tment to primitive atrologial influence “The naturalistic pantheon increased, but these seven became the most outstanding fof the gods that controlled the destiny of tan in the system of ateology that de- eloped in the ancient work, was stand ardized by Piolemy, and has come down to the aoth century. Several branches of astrology developed side by side, of which we here mention two. The firs was natura astrology, which dealt with the prediction of eclipses, con jumetion of the planes, return of the Seasons and other nateral phenomena ‘The second was judicial astrology, judg ing the influence of the heavenly bodies fon human affairs, which predicted the fet and fate of meni and nations, Strange a it may scm, both of these types ef prediction, natural and judicial, had the Sainc philosophical basis in the’ period of longings Emperor Shun, ‘eho ruled about 2250, B.C 10 Sky axp Tetescore the ancients. Eclipses were predicted by empirical rules long before physical laws were found to explain the tions of the sn and the apparent mo The precession of the equinotes was known, 300 years belore Copernicus gave a physical explanation of the phenomenon These empirical results scemed_sulficient to jusify natural astrology. The final tes was: Does it work? Did the predictions prove to he true? Did the eclipse occur 4 the time and place expected? When we tuen to judicial astrology we find that the same method of testing its tru was applied. Manelous stories of correct predictions of mundane events may be found in the annals of astrology, for instance, Lilly's predictions of the great plague of 1665 and the Landon fre in 1666. One of the strangest involves Fam steed (1646-1710), fst Antronomer Royal of England, who rejected astrology. An Jimportunate woman who had lost a valu able article made repeated appeals to the scientist to determine by the stars where {0 find her lost property. As a last rewrt Wo get rd of her Plamstced sketched her hhowse and grounds and splotched in some hurriedly invented mystial symbols pointed to 4 spot and said, “Dig there.” She did, and found it (On the other band, many false predic tions are recorded. Cardan (1501-1576), an eminent mathematician and astrologer, predicted thar Edward VI would live the age of 55 years, 3. months, 17 days The king died atthe age of 16 s00n after the horoscope was read. OF course an explanation of the failure was fortheon Other failures were blamed on unknown planets or other ingenious devices. related of involved war necesstry Awempting to form an_unprejudiced judgment on this question, it would seem that the empirical test breaks down in the case of judicial astrology. One correct prediction outweighs a multitude of false nes. In other words, those who are pre disposed to accept the truth of astrology ate credulous enough to adopt the favor able cases and reject the unfavorable ones, What test or explanation may be offere Let us detour before reaching a conclu The Grecks have been credited with holding astrology in check toa great de ‘gree; but we must not forget that Prolemy, second century A.D., the greatest scientific author of his day, in addition to writing his Synaexis, also wrote his Terabiblos, the greatest text in astrology, which stand ardized the system that to the present, We se in Prolemy, hov ever, a clear division of the subject and a cleat recognition of the two purposes of ‘observational data regarding, the heavenly hodies, one for judicial astzology to. pre diet human events, and the other for natural astrology for an analytical study Prolemy, Alexandrian astronomer and ‘srologer. of the celestial bodies, the branch which has become scientifie astronomy. In the Orient, these two branches, natural and judicial, were more firmly interlocked. ‘The Chinese astrological sys tem is not well known in the West, so the following quotation from an early star chart may be of interest: Before the Great Absolute had wn- folded itself, the three primal. essences, Heaven, Earth and Man, were involved within, This was termed original chaos, because the intermingled essences had not yet separated. When the Great Absolute unfolded, the light and pure formed Heaven, the heavy and impure formed Fanh and the mingled pure and impure formed Man. ‘The light aod pure con: stitute sprit, the heavy and impure eon. stitute bedy, and the union of spisit and body constitute mi ‘Hence all spi emanate from Heaves al and logical reason, being inherent in the Great Nbwlute. This evolves into the San and the Mooa, divides into the five. planets, arranges in order as the 28 mansions and reunites to form the directors and the circumpolar stars. All of these being in volved in the immutable directing reason are also in harmony with the rational principle in Man, 30 they may e inter preted by reason, manifestations That philosophical hasis estalished the antlogial system adopted for the we of he emperor of the Celestial Kingdom, which guided state action for several mil lnia. Astology maintained its paramount influence in the East even later than in the West When Isaac Newton matriculated at Cambridge and was asked what he wished to study, he i sid to. have replied Mathematics, to text judicial astrology What Newton found you well Know=—the law of gravitation, which ie a physical Stars and planets became, lnw-abid law ing members of the physical universe. No