THE IOO-INCH REFLECTOR. 



To the unaided vision, about 5,000 stars would be 

 visible on a clear night in the entire sky. Accord- 

 ing; to a recent estimate by Chapman and Melotte 

 the heavens contain about 219,000,000 stars, 

 brighter than the twentieth magnitude, which are 

 within the range of our 6o-inch reflector. If the 

 indications afforded by Chapman's figures can be 



FIG. 59. loo-inch Disk on Grinding Machine turned into vertical 



position. 



applied to fainter objects, there is reason to hope 

 that a loo-inch telescope would add nearly 100,- 

 000,000 still fainter stars, many of them lying be- 

 yond the boundary of the universe as at present 

 known. The inconceivably great distance of these 

 stars makes them of peculiar interest and impor- 

 tance in the study of the magnitude and structure 

 of the sidereal svstem. 



