Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1882 — What Can be Seen With a Small Telescope. [ARTICLE]

What Can be Seen With a Small Telescope.

[Harper’s Magazine.] The curiosity to see the heavenly bodies through great telescopes is so vide-spread tnat we are apt to forget how much can be seen and dotie with small ones. The fact is that a large proportion of the astronomical observations of past times nave been made with what we should now regard as very small instruments, and ~ a good deal of tne solid astronomical work of the present time is done with meridian circles, the aperature of which ordinarily range from four to eight inches. One of the most conspicuous examples in recent times of how a moderatesized instrument may be utilized is afforded by the discoveries of double stars made by 8. W. Burnham, of Ch.cago. Provided with a little six-inch telescope, procured at his own expeuse from the Messrs. Clark, he has disco vered several hundred double stars so difficult that they had escaped the scrutiny of Maedler aud the Htruves and gained for himself one of the hignest positions among the astronomers of the day engaged in the observation of these objects. It was with this little instrument that on Mount Hamilton, Cal.—-the site of the future great Lick Observatory—he discovered forty-eight new double stars which had remained unnoticed by all previous observers. First among the objects which show beautifully through moderate instruments stands the moon. People who want to see the moon at an observatory

generally make the mistake of looking when the moon is full, and asking to Nothing can then be made out but a brilliant blaze of light, mottled with dark spots, and crossed by irregular bright lines. The best time toliew the moon is near or before the first quarter, or when she is from three to eight days old. The last quarter fs! of course, equally favorable, so far as seeing is concerned, only we must be ud after midnight to see her in that position. Been through a three or four inch telescope, a day or two beiore the first quarter, about half an hour after sunset, and with a magnifying power between 50 and 100, the moon is one of the most beautiful objects in the heavens. Twilight softens her radiance so that the eye is not dazzled as it will be when the sky is entirely dark. The general aspect she then presents is that of a hemisphere of beautiful chased silver carved out in .curious round patterns with a more than human skill. If, however, one wishes to see the minute details of the lunar surface, in which mauy of our astronomers are now so deeply interested, he must use a higher magnifying power. The general beautiful effeet is then lessened, but more details are seen. Still, it is hardly necessary to seek for a very large telescope for any investigation of the lunar surface. I very much doubt whether auy one has ever seen anything on the moon which could not be made out in a clear, steady atmosphere with a six inch telescope of the first class.