Astronomy: The Science of the Heavenly Bodies Part 10

This is the way Newton puts the question in his treatise on _Opticks_--he says: "The Air through which we look upon the Stars, is in a perpetual Tremor; as may be seen by the tremulous Motion of Shadows cast from high Towers, and by the twinkling of the fix'd stars.... The only remedy is a most serene and quiet Air, such as may perhaps be found on the tops of the highest Mountains above the grosser Clouds."

Newton's suggestion is that the _highest_ mountains may afford the best conditions for tranquillity; and it is an interesting coincidence that the summits of the highest mountains, about 30,000 feet in elevation, are at about the same level where the turbulence of the atmosphere most likely ceases, according to the indications of recent meteorological research. These heights are far above any elevations permanently occupied as yet, but a good beginning has been made and results of great value have already been reached.

Curiously, investigation of mountain peaks and their suitability for this purpose was not undertaken till nearly two centuries after Newton, when Piazzi Smyth in 1856 organized his expedition to the summit of a mountain of quite moderate elevation, and published his "Teneriffe: an Astronomer's Experiment." Teneriffe is an accessible peak of about 10,000 feet, on an island of the Canaries off the African coast, where Smyth fancied that conditions of equability would exist; and on reaching the summit with his apparatus and spending a few days and nights there, he was not disappointed. Could he have reached an elevation of 13,000 feet, he would have had fully one-third of all the atmosphere in weight below him, and that the most turbulent portion of all. Nevertheless, the gain in steadiness of the atmosphere, providing "better seeing," as the astronomer's expression is, even at 10,000 feet, was most encouraging, and led to attempts on other peaks by other astronomers, a few of whom we shall mention.

Davidson, an observer of the United States Coast Survey, with a broad experience of many years in mountain observing, investigated the summit of the Sierra Nevada mountains as early as 1872, at an elevation of 7,200 feet. His especial object was to make an accurate comparison between elevated stations at different heights. He found the seeing excellent, especially on the sun; but the excessive snowfall at his station, 45 feet annually, was a condition very adverse to permanent occupation.

In the summer of 1872, Young spent several weeks at Sherman, Wyoming, at an elevation exceeding 8,300 feet. He carried with him the 9.4-inch telescope of Dartmouth College, where he was then professor, and this was the first expedition on which a large gla.s.s was used by a very skillful observer at great elevation. He found the number of good days and nights small, but the sky was exceedingly favorable when clear. Many 7th magnitude stars could be detected with the naked eye. Young's observations at Sherman were mainly spectroscopic, however, and they demonstrated the immense advantage of a high-level station, far above the dust and haze of the lower atmosphere. He p.r.o.nounced the 9.4-inch gla.s.s at 8,000 feet the full equivalent of a 12-inch at sea level.

Mont Blanc of 15,000 feet elevation was another summit where the veteran Janssen of Paris maintained a station for many years; but the continental conditions of atmospheric moisture and circulation were not favorable on the whole. Janssen was mainly interested in the sun, and the daylight seeing is rarely benefited, owing to the strong upward currents of warm air set in motion by the sun itself.

Mountains in the beautiful climate of California were among the earliest investigated, and when in 1874 the trustees of Mr. James Lick's estate were charged with equipping an observatory with the most powerful telescope in existence, they wisely located on the summit of Mount Hamilton. It is 4,300 feet above sea level, and Burnham and other astronomers made critical tests of the steadiness of vision there by observing double stars, which afford perhaps the best means of comparing the optical quality of the atmosphere of one region with another. The writer was fortunate in having charge of the observations of the transit of Venus in 1882 on the mountain, when the Observatory was in process of construction, and the quality of the photographs obtained on that occasion demonstrated anew the excellence of the site. Particularly at night, for about nine months of the year, the seeing is exceptionally good, especially when fog banks rolling in from the Pacific, cover the valleys below like a blanket, preventing harmful radiation from the soil below.

The great telescope mounted in 1888, a 36-inch refractor by Alvan Clark, has fulfilled every expectation of its projectors, and justified the selection of the site in every particular. The elevation, although moderate, is still high enough to secure very marked advantage in clearness and steadiness of the air, and at the same time not so high that the health and activities of the observers are appreciably affected by the thinner air of the summit. This telescope is known the world over for the monumental contributions to science made by the able astronomers who have worked with it: among them Barnard who discovered the fifth satellite of Jupiter in 1892; Burnham, Hussey, and Aitken, who have discovered and measured thousands of close double stars; Keeler, who spent many faithful years on the summit; and Campbell, the present director, whose spectroscopic researches on stellar movements have added greatly to our knowledge of the structure of the universe. Among the many lines of research now in progress at the Lick Observatory and in the D. O. Mills Observatory at Santiago, Chile, are the discoveries of stars whose velocities in s.p.a.ce are not constant, but variable with the spectral type of the star. Mr. Lick's bequest for the Observatory was about $700,000. So ably has this scientific trust been administered that he might well have endowed it with his entire estate, exceeding $4,000,000.

Another California mountain that was early investigated is Mount Whitney. Its summit elevation is nearly 15,000 feet, and in 1881 Langley made its ascent for the purpose of measuring the solar constant. He found conditions much more favorable than on Mount Etna, Sicily--elevation about 10,000 feet--which he had visited the year before. But the height of Mount Whitney was such as to occasion him much inconvenience from mountain sickness, an ailment which is most distressing and due partly to lack of oxygen and partly to mere diminution of mechanical pressure. Mount Whitney was also visited many years after by Campbell for investigating the spectrum of Mars in comparison with that of the moon. Langley found on Mount Whitney an excellent station lower down, at about 12,000 feet elevation; and by equipping the two stations with like apparatus for measuring the solar heat, he obtained very important data on the selective absorption of the atmosphere.

Returning from the transit of Venus in 1882, Copeland of Edinburgh visited several sites in the Andes of Peru, ascending on the railway from Mollendo. Vincocaya was one of the highest, something over 14,000 feet elevation. His report was most enthusiastic, not only as to clearness and transparency of the atmosphere, but also as to its steadiness, which for planetary and double star observations is almost as important. Copeland's investigation of this region of the Andes has led many other astronomers to make critical tests in the same general region. Climatic conditions are particularly favorable, and the sites for high-level research are among the best known, the atmosphere being not only clear a large part of the year, but in certain favored spots exceedingly steady.

In 1887 the writer ascended the summit of Fujiyama, j.a.pan, 12,400 feet elevation. The early September conditions as to steadiness of atmosphere were extraordinarily fine, but the mountain is covered by cloud many months in each year. There is a saddle on the inside of the crater that would form an ideal location for a high-level observatory. This expedition was undertaken at the request of the late Professor Pickering, director of Harvard College Observatory, which had recently received a bequest from Uriah A. Boyden, amounting to nearly a quarter of a million dollars, to "establish and maintain, in conjunction with others, an astronomical observatory on some mountain peak."

Great elevations were systematically investigated in Colorado and California, the Chilean desert of Atacama was visited, and a temporary station established at Chosica, Peru, elevation about 5,000 feet.

Atmospheric conditions becoming unfavorable, a permanent station was established in 1891 at Arequipa, Peru, elevation 8,000 feet, which has been maintained as an annex to the Harvard Observatory ever since. The cloud conditions have been on the whole less favorable than was expected, but the steadiness of the air has been very satisfactory. In addition to planetary researches conducted there in the earlier years by W. H. Pickering, many large programs of stellar research have been executed, especially relating to the magnitudes and spectra of the stars. In conjunction with the home observatory in the northern hemisphere, this afforded a vast advantage in embracing all the stars of the entire heavens, on a scale not attempted elsewhere. The Bruce photographic telescope of 24-inch aperture has been employed for many years at Arequipa, and with it the plates were taken which enabled Pickering to discover the ninth satellite of Saturn (Phoebe), and the splendid photographs of southern globular cl.u.s.ters in which Bailey has found numerous variable stars of very short periods--very faint objects, but none the less interesting, and of much significance in modern study of the evolution and structure of the stellar universe. The crowning research of the observatory is the Henry Draper catalogue of stellar spectra, now in process of publication, which is of the first order of importance in statistical studies of stellar distribution with reference to spectral type, and in studying the relation of parallax and distance, proper motion, radial velocity and its variation to the spectral characteristics of the stars.

Perrine of Cordova is now establis.h.i.+ng on Sierra Chica about twenty-five miles southwest of Cordova, a great reflecting telescope comparable in size with the instruments of the northern hemisphere, for investigation of the southern nebulae and cl.u.s.ters, and motions of the stars. The elevation of this new Argentine observatory will be 4,000 feet above sea level.

Another observatory at mountain elevation and in a highly favorable climate is the Lowell Observatory, located at about 7,000 feet elevation at Flagstaff, Arizona. Many localities were visited and the atmosphere tested especially for steadiness, an optical quality very essential for research on the planetary surfaces. Mexico was one of these stations, but local air currents and changes of temperature there were such that good seeing was far from prevalent, as had been expected. At Flagstaff, on the other hand, conditions have been pretty uniformly good, and an enormous amount of work on the planet Mars has been acc.u.mulated and published. The first successful photographs of this planet were taken there in 1905, and Jupiter, Saturn, the zodiacal light and many other test objects have been photographed, which demonstrates the excellence of the site for astronomical research. Within recent years spectrum research by Slipher, especially on the nebulae, has been added to the program, and the rotation and radial velocities of many nebulae have been determined.

On Mount Wilson, near Pasadena, California, at an elevation of nearly 6,000 feet, is the Carnegie Solar Observatory, founded and equipped under the direction of Professor George E. Hale, as a department of the Carnegie Inst.i.tution of Was.h.i.+ngton, of which Dr. John Campbell Merriam is President. The climatology of the region was carefully investigated and tests of the seeing made by Hussey and others. Although equipped primarily for study of the sun, the program of the observatory has been widely amplified to include the stars and nebulae. The instrumental equipment is unique in many respects. To avoid the harmful effect of unsteadiness of air strata close to the ground a tower 150 feet high was erected, with a dome surmounting it and covering a coelostat with mirror for reflecting the sun's rays vertically downward. Underneath the tower a dry well was excavated to a depth equal to 1/2 the height of the tower above it. In the subterranean chamber is the spectroheliograph of exceptional size and power. The sun's original image is nearly 17 inches in diameter on the plate, and the solar chromosphere and prominences, together with the photosphere and faculae, are all recorded by monochromatic light.

Connected with the observatory on Mount Wilson are the laboratories, offices and instrument shops in Pasadena, 16 miles distant, where the remarkable apparatus for use on the mountain is constructed. A reflecting telescope with silver-on-gla.s.s mirror 60 inches in diameter was first built by Ritchey and thoroughly tested by stellar photographs.

Also the northern spiral nebulae were photographed, exhibiting an extraordinary wealth of detail in apparent star formation. The success of this instrument paved the way for one similar in design, but with a mirror 100 inches in diameter, provided by gift of the late John D.

Hooker of Los Angeles. The telescope was completed in 1919.

Notwithstanding its huge size and enormous weight, the mounting is very successful, as well as the mirror. Mercurial bearings counterbalance the weight of the polar axis in large part. This great telescope, by far the largest and most powerful ever constructed, is now employed on a program of research in which its vast light-gathering power will be utilized to the full. Under the skillful management of Hale and his enthusiastic and capable colleagues, the confines of the stellar heavens will be enormously extended, and secrets of evolution of the universe and of its structure no doubt revealed.

In all the mountain stations. .h.i.therto established, as the Lick Observatory at 4,000 feet, the Mount Wilson Observatory at 6,000 feet, the Lowell Observatory at 7,000 feet, the Harvard Observatory at 8,000 feet; and Teneriffe and Etna at 10,000, Fujiyama at 12,000, Pike's Peak at 14,000, Mont Blanc and Mount Whitney at 15,000, the researches that have been carried on have fully demonstrated the vast advantage of increased elevation in localities where climatological conditions as well as elevation are favorable. Nevertheless, only one-half of the extreme alt.i.tude contemplated by Sir Isaac Newton has yet been attained.

Can the greater heights be reached and permanently occupied?

Geographically and astronomically the most favorably located mountain for a great observatory is Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. Its elevation is 22,000 feet, and it was ascended by Edward Whymper in 1880. Situated very nearly on the earth's equator, almost the entire sidereal heavens are visible from this single station, and all the planets are favored by circ.u.mzenith conditions when pa.s.sing the meridian. No other mountain in the world approaches Chimborazo in this respect. But the summit is perpetually snow-capped, exceedingly inaccessible, and the defect of barometric pressure would make life impossible up there in the open.

Only one method of occupation appears to be feasible. The permanent snow line is at about 16,000 feet, where excellent water power is available.

By tunneling into the mountain at this point, and diagonally upward to the summit, permanent occupation could be accomplished, at a cost not to exceed one million dollars.

The rooms of the summit observatory would need to be built as steel caissons, and supplied with compressed air at sea-level tension. The practicability of this plan was demonstrated by the writer in September, 1907, at Cerro de Pasco, Peru. A steel caisson was carried up to an elevation exceeding 14,000 feet. Patients suffering acutely with mountain sickness were placed inside this caisson, and on restoring the atmospheric pressure within it artificially all unfavorable symptoms--headache, high respiration and accelerated pulse--disappeared.

There was every indication that if persons liable to this uncomfortable complaint were brought up to this elevation, or indeed any attainable elevation, under unreduced pressure, the symptoms of mountain sickness would be unknown. Comfortable occupation of the highest mountain summits was thereby a.s.sured.

The working of astronomical instruments from within air-tight compartments does not present any insurmountable difficulties, either mechanical or physical. Since the time these experiments were made, the Guayaquil-Quito railway has been constructed over a saddle of Chimborazo, at an elevation of 12,000 feet; and only six miles of railway would need to be built from this station to the point where the tunnel would enter the mountain.

Only by the execution of some such plan as this can astronomers hope to overcome the baleful effects of an ever mobile atmosphere, and secure the advantages contemplated by Sir Isaac Newton in that tranquillity of atmosphere, which he conceived as perpetually surrounding the summits of the highest mountains.

In Russell's theory of the progressive development of the stars, from the giant cla.s.s to the dwarf, an element of verification from observation is lacking, because hitherto no certain method of measuring the very minute angular diameters of the stars has been successfully applied. The apparent surface brightness corresponding to each spectral type is pretty well known, and by dividing it into the total apparent brightness, we have the angular area subtended by the star, quite independent of the star's distance. This makes it easy to estimate the angular diameter of a star, and Betelgeuse is the one which has the greatest angular diameter of all whose distances we know. Antares is next in order of angular diameter, 0".043, Aldebaran 0".022, Arcturus 0".020, Pollux 0".013, and Sirius only 0".007.

Can these theoretical estimates be verified by observation? Clearly it is of the utmost importance and the exceedingly difficult inquiry has been undertaken with the 100-inch reflector on Mount Wilson, employing the method of the interferometer developed by Michelson and described later on, an instrument undoubtedly capable of measuring much smaller angles than can be measured by any other known method. Unquestionably the interference of atmospheric waves, or in other words what astronomers call "poor seeing," will ultimately set the limit to what can be accomplished. "But even if," says Eddington, "we have to send special expeditions to the top of one of the highest mountains in the world, the attack on this far-reaching problem must not be allowed to languish."

CHAPTER XXIII

THE PROGRAM OF A GREAT OBSERVATORY

The Mount Wilson Observatory has now been in operation about fifteen years. The novelty in construction of its instruments, the investigations undertaken with them and the discoveries made, the interpretation of celestial phenomena by laboratory experiment, and the recent addition to its equipment of a telescope 100 inches in diameter, surpa.s.sing all others in power, directs especial attention to the extensive activities of this inst.i.tution, whose budget now exceeds a million dollars annually. Results are only achieved by a carefully elaborated program, such as the following, for which the reader is mainly indebted to Dr. Hale, the director of the observatory, who gives a very clear idea of the trend of present-day research on the magnetic nature of the sun, and the structure and evolution of the sidereal universe.

The purpose of the observatory, as defined at its inception, was to undertake a general study of stellar evolution, laying especial emphasis upon the study of the sun, considered as a typical star; physical researches on stars and nebulae; and the interpretation of solar and stellar phenomena by laboratory experiments. Recognizing that the development of new instruments and methods afforded the most promising means of progress, well-equipped machine shops and optical shops were provided with this end in view.

The original program of the observatory has been much modified and extended by the independent and striking discovery by Campbell and Kapteyn of an important relations.h.i.+p between stellar speed and spectral type; the demonstration by Hertzsprung and Russell of the existence of giant and dwarf stars; the successful application of the 60-inch reflector by Van Maanen to the measurement of minute parallaxes of stars and nebulae; the important developments of Shapley's investigation of globular star cl.u.s.ters; the possibilities of research resulting from Seares's studies in stellar photometry; and the remarkable means of attack developed by Adams through the method of spectroscopic parallaxes.

By this method the absolute magnitude, and hence the distance of a star is accurately determined from estimates of the relative intensities of certain lines in stellar spectra. Attention was first directed toward lines of this character in 1906, when it was inferred that the weakening of some lines in the spectra of sun spots and the strengthening of others was the result of reduced temperature of the spot vapors. On testing this hypothesis by laboratory experiments, it was fully verified.

Subsequently Adams, who had thus become familiar with these lines and their variability, studied them extensively in the spectra of other stars. In this way was discovered the dependence of their relative intensities on the star's absolute magnitude, so providing the powerful method of spectroscopic parallaxes.

This method, giving the absolute magnitude as well as the distance of every star (excepting those of the earliest type) whose spectrum is photographed, is no less important from the evolutional than from the structural point of view.

Investigations in solar physics which formerly held chief place in the research program have developed along unexpected lines. It could not be foreseen at the outset that solar magnetic phenomena might become a subject of inquiry, demanding special instrumental facilities, and throwing light on the complex question of the nature of the sun spots and other solar problems of long standing. It is obvious that these researches, together with those on the solar rotation and the motions of the solar atmosphere, developed by Adams and St. John, must be carried to their logical conclusion, if they are to be utilized to the fullest in interpreting stellar and nebular phenomena.

The discovery of solar magnetism, like many other Mount Wilson results, was the direct outcome of a long series of instrumental developments.

The progressive improvement and advance in size of the tools of research was absolutely necessary. Hale's first spectroheliograph at Kenwood in 1890 was attached to a 12-inch refractor, and the solar image was but two inches in diameter. It was soon found that a larger solar image was essential, and a spectrograph of much greater linear dispersion; in fact, the spectrograph must be made the prime element in the combination, and the telescope so designed as to serve as a necessary auxiliary.

Accordingly, successive steps have led through spectrographs of 18 and 30 feet dimension to a vertical spectrograph 75 feet in focal length.

The telescope is the 150 feet tower telescope, giving a solar image of 16.5 inches in diameter. Its spectrograph is ma.s.sive in construction, and by extending deep into the earth, it enjoys the stability and constancy of temperature required for the most exacting work.

Another direct outgrowth of the work of sun-spot spectra is a study of the spectra of red stars, where the chemistry of these coolest regions of the sun is partially duplicated. The combination of t.i.tanium and oxygen, and the significant changes of line intensity already observed in both instances, and also in the electric furnace at reduced temperatures, give indication of what may be expected to result from an attack on the spectra of the red stars with more powerful instrumental means, which is now provided by the 100-inch telescope and its large stellar spectrograph.

Other elements in the design of the 100-inch Hooker telescope have the same general object in view--that of developing and applying in astronomical practice the effective research methods suggested by recent advances in physics. Fresh possibilities of progress are constantly arising, and these are utilized as rapidly as circ.u.mstances permit.

The policy of undertaking the interpretations of celestial phenomena by laboratory experiments, an important element in the initial organization of Mount Wilson, has certainly been justified by its results. Indeed, the development of many of the chief solar investigations would have been impossible without the aid of special laboratory studies, going hand in hand with the astronomical observations. So indispensable are such researches, and so great is the promise of their extension, that the time has now come for advancing the laboratory work from an accessory feature to full equality with the major factors in the work of the observatory. Accordingly a new instrument now under installation is an extremely powerful electro-magnet, designed by Anderson for the extension of researches on the Zeeman effect, and for other related investigations. Within the large and uniform field of this magnet, which is built in the form of a solenoid, a special electric furnace, designed for this purpose by King, is used for the study of the inverse Zeeman effect at various angles with the lines of force. This will provide the means of interpreting certain remarkable anomalies in the magnetic phenomena of sun spots.

The 100-inch telescope is now in regular use. All the tests so far applied show that it greatly surpa.s.ses the 60-inch telescope in every cla.s.s of work. For many months most of the observations and photographs have been made with the Ca.s.segrain combination of mirrors, giving an equivalent focal length of 134 feet and involving three reflections of light. The 100-inch telescope is found to give nearly 2.8 times as much light as the 60-inch telescope, and therefore extends the scope of the instrument to all the stars an entire magnitude fainter. This is a very important gain for research on the faint globular cl.u.s.ters, as well as the small and faint spiral and planetary nebulae, providing a much larger scale for these objects and sufficient light at the same time.

Photographs of the moon and many other less critical tests have been made with very satisfactory results. Those of the moon appear to be decidedly superior in definition to any previously taken with other instruments.

Another investigation is of great importance in the light of recent advances in theoretical dynamics. Darwin, in his fundamental researches on the dynamics of rotating ma.s.ses, dealt with incompressible matter, which a.s.sumes the well-known pear-shaped figure, and may ultimately separate into two bodies. Roche on the other hand discussed the evolution of a highly compressible ma.s.s, which finally acquires a lens-shaped form and ejects matter at its periphery. Both of these are extreme cases. Jeans has recently dealt with intermediate cases, such as are actually encountered in stars and nebulae. He finds that when the density is less than about one-fourth that of water, a lens-shaped figure will be produced with sharp edges, as depicted by Roche. Matter thrown off at opposite points on the periphery, under the influence of small tidal forces from neighboring ma.s.ses, may take the form of two symmetric filaments, though it is not yet entirely clear how these may attain the characteristic configuration of spiral nebulae. The preliminary results of Van Maanen indicate motion outward along the arms, in harmony with Jeans's views.

Jeans further discusses the evolution of the arms, which will break up into nuclei (of the order of ma.s.s of the sun) if they are sufficiently ma.s.sive, but will diffuse away if their gravitational attraction is small. The ma.s.s of our solar system is apparently not great enough, according to Jeans, to account for its formation in this way. As is apparent, these investigations lead to conclusions very different from those derived by Chamberlin and Moulton from the planetesimal hypothesis.

This is a critical study of spiral nebulae for which the 100-inch telescope is of all instruments in existence the best suited. The spectra of the spirals must be studied, as well as the motions of the matter composing the arms. Their parallaxes, too, must be ascertained.

A photographic campaign including spiral nebulae of various types will settle the question of internal motions. The large scale of the spiral nebulae at the princ.i.p.al focus of the Hooker telescope, and the experience gained in the measurement of nebular nuclei for parallax determination, will help greatly in this research. A multiple-slit spectrograph, already applied at Mount Wilson, will be employed, not only on spiral nebulae whose plane is directed toward us, but also on those whose plane lies at an angle sufficient to permit both components of motion to be measured by the two methods.