58 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



ones, unless some site is found offering- 

 better conditions, such as in a higher al- 

 titude or in a southern latitude. May 

 somebody build small, well equipped ob- 

 servatories all over the country, as Mr. 

 Carnegie has libraries. — Miss h. B. Al- 

 len, Observatory House, Wellesley, 

 Massachusetts. 



The Pioneer Astronomers. 



Mr. Lemont Barbour of Columbia 

 University purposes to establish a 

 Chapter of The Agassiz Association 

 to search for new stars, for comets, 

 and to do general pioneer work in as- 

 tronomy. He says, "My plan is to get 

 together a number of members of the 

 AA and assign them particular sec- 

 tions of the sky to observe as often 

 as possible. These sections will not 

 be very large, probably about the size 

 of the constellation Auriga. The plan 

 of work is along the lines sketched by 

 Mr. Leon Campbell in 'Popular As- 

 tronomy' for October, 1914. The only 

 requisites are a good star atlas (Schu- 

 rig's, price $1.00, is a good one and is 

 not expensive, as is Proctor's) and a 

 certain amount of perseverance. When 

 a Nova is discovered, the person sends 

 a note to me and a telegram to the 

 nearest observatory for confirmation. 

 This should be done immediately, and 

 should merely include a statement of 

 the Nova's location in relation to the 

 nearest bright stars and its approxi- 

 mate magnitude, calculated by com- 

 parison with near by stars of known 

 magnitude. For those possessing tel- 

 escopes (there are surely some people 

 in the AA who own telescopes) a sim- 

 ilar but more certain work, more cer- 

 tain, that is, because they have charts 

 showing the star that they are to ob- 

 serve and when to look for it, consists 

 in observing stars that were once 

 Novae, but are now rather dim. If the 

 work appeals sufficiently to the ob- 

 servers, those who wish to do so may 

 join Mr. Olcott's association of Vari- 

 able Star Observers. Particulars may 

 be had regarding this from me or from 

 Mr. Olcott, 62 Church street, Norwich, 

 Connecticut." 



We purpose to make the new ob- 

 servatory at ArcAdiA the center or 

 clearing house for astronomical work 

 w^ith young people, with either small 

 telescopes or good field glasses. Meet- 

 ings will be held here from time to 



time. Air. Barbour cordially invites 

 correspondence. He proposes that the 

 motto of the new astronomical Chap- 

 ter be "Per stellas ad lumen" (through 

 the stars to enlightenment). It is 



probable that this plan may result in 

 two new corresponding Chapters, one 

 for those who have telescopes and the 

 other an opera glass or field glass 

 Chapter. Regarding this plan our 

 Professor Eric Doolittle w^rites as fol- 

 lows : 



"This would be an excellent plan and 

 will prove an interesting and attractive 

 work to those who seriously enter upon 

 it. But I would not limit the efforts to 

 'new' stars, nor probably did Mr. Bar- 

 bour intend this. Let each observer take 

 a small area of the sky and become so- 

 familiar with it that he shall 'know^ it like 

 a book.' Then upon searching the region 

 at frequent intervals, he will at once 

 notice anything new or different, whether 

 it be a new star, a sudden variation in 

 brightness of an old one, a comet or any- 

 thing unusual. 



"It would add greatly to the value 

 and interest of this work if each observer 

 could have at least a small telescope. 

 Even if it were but a pair of field glasses, 

 held firmly with heavy rubber bands to- 

 a cheap tripod, this would be a dozen 

 times more efficient than the unaided eye. 

 I remember that twenty-five years ago,, 

 my first professor. Professor Laenas G. 

 Weld, of Iowa City, used to urge the de- 

 sirability of thus apportioning the entire 

 sky among professional astronomers.. 

 The idea was that each should take a. 

 small area and make a full map of it, 

 putting in all stars visible in his tele- 

 scope, their magnitudes, colors, the nebu- 

 las, clusters and everything else. Each 

 should then sweep over his assigned re- 

 gion until he knows it as well as he- 

 knows the arrangement of rooms and 

 furniture in his own house. A brief ex- 

 amination made each evening before he- 

 began his regular work in the observa- 

 tory would then be all that would be 

 necessary to discover if anything new 

 had appeared, or any change had taken 

 place, in his particular region. 



"The remarkable new star in Cygnus 

 (discovered by Schmidt of Athens in 

 1876) rose from invisibility to a star of 

 the second magnitude zvithin tzvo hours. 

 The new star in Perseus (discovered in 

 1901 by the Reverend T. D. Anderson,. 



