Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1885 — Changes in the Sun and Moon. [ARTICLE]

Changes in the Sun and Moon.

The apparent enlargement of the planets which give us most of our light has been explained in various ways, but experiments recently made by M. Stroobant, in Belgium, indicate that the cause of the phenomenon is a physiological one. In a darkened room M. Stroobant had fixed to the ceiling two electric stars about eight inches apart, and on the level of his eye two similar stars, the distance between which could be varied at pleasure, while the observer’s eyes were at an equal distance from either pair. When the pair of stars on- the level of his eye were so adjusted as to appear at the same distance as the pair in the ceiling, they were proved on measurement to be only six and one-half inches apart. He then transferred his observations to the actual stars, selecting pairs at sensibly equal distances apart in the horizon and in the zenith, and afterward measuring their real angular separation as marked on the celestial globe. The apparent separation of the stars in the horizon was increased in almost precisely the same degree, the ratio of the real distances, which seemed to the eye to be the same, being as 100 in the zenith to from 79.5 to 81.5 in the horizon.