Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1895 — Measuring Starlight. [ARTICLE]

Measuring Starlight.

An English astronomer named Minchin has invented an instrument which accurately measures the quantity of light given out by a star. Stars are designated as being of the first down to the twentieth magnitude, according to the intensity of the light given out. The magnitude of a star has hitherto been judged by the eye, and anything like exactitude could not be obtained.’ By the new invention the rough designation of magnitude is represented by numbers which give the exact ratio of one star to another in light-giving powers. The star Arcturus, for example, is estimated by the new pro*, cess to give 75f times the light of Regulus. This instrument will be of great use not only in astronomy, but iQ meteorology also. The amount of light which reaches the earth from the stars varies according to the state of the atmosphere, aud the inventor claims that forecasts of weather cau be obtained in this way which will be far more accurate than those obtained at present.