TO KNOW THE STARRY HE WEXS 



331 



The Interest in Astronomy. 



1!Y S. C. IlUXTliK^ NEW ROCIIELLE, 

 NEW YORK. 



In a recent issue of "The Monthly 

 Evening- Sky Map," 'Sir. Leon Barritt 

 asks, "What is the matter with astron- 

 omy ?" Astronomy is not taught in gram- 

 mar schools nor in high schools, and in 

 colleges and universities it is elective. He 

 thinks that the general indifference is 

 owing to the manner in which the subject 

 is presented, and to the parents' desire 

 to have their children follow courses that 

 have a more commercial value. 



Whatever the reason may be. there is 

 no doubt about the general absence of 

 the most elementary knowdedge on this 

 subject, not with the college graduate 

 only but with the man on the street. 

 When we consider that no other science 

 combines the spectacular and the infinite 

 in such marvelous varieties, the problem 

 of this almost universal apathy becomes 

 difficult to understand. There is, how- 

 ever, a fact that should not be overlooked, 

 one that I feel accounts in some degree 

 for this indifference. This is our modern 

 manner of living. It should not be for- 

 gotten ,that knowledge of the heavenly 

 bodies came originally from a pastoral 

 people. It is of the Arabians, whose clear 

 skies and desert life made them familiar 

 with the stars, that it is written. "He 

 whose roof is heaven, who has no other 

 cover, over whom the stars continually 

 rise and set in one and the same course 

 makes the beg"inning of his affairs and his 

 knowledge of time depend upon them." 



We are an urban people. The glare of 

 the street lights and the marvelous elec- 

 trical advertisements that flash into our 

 faces from the street corners and the 

 housetoDS deprive the rank and file of the 

 possibility of searching the heavens for 

 those other lights that are either entirely 

 blotted out or are reduced to an insigni- 

 ficant blur. 



For those of us who are lucky enough 

 to live in the country it is left to enter 

 into the appreciation of star gazing. It 

 is a privilege to be in a location that may 

 be thus utilized. Even a little knowdedge 

 is a wonderful thing, even only a bowing 

 acouaintance with trees, flowers, rocks. 

 What a zest it gives to the act of living! 

 We observe this and that as we walk 

 through the fields, and we understand, 

 possibly not in whole, but at least in part. 

 So it is with the stars. A complete knowl- 

 edge is not necessary. Think how impos- 



sible that would be. We are actually in 

 touch visually with the infinite. New 

 methods, new devices are daily bringing 

 new discoveries to view and probing 

 deeper and deeper into the vast recesses 

 of space. The more we know, the more 

 appalling is our ignorance, yet we may 

 quietly enjoy the wonderful panoramic 



MR. HUNTER'S OBSERVATORY AT NEW 

 ROCHELLE, NEW YORK. 



display that rolls above our heads on any 

 clear night, and now and then nod to a 

 friendly, twinkling eye about which we 

 do know something, just enough to make 

 thrilling this acquaintanceship in the 

 upper vastness. 



Except for the technical knowledge, 

 which is of course necessary, books should 

 play a minor part in our star work. It 

 is with a small telescqpe that the beauties 

 of the starry heavens ma}^ be revealed. 

 Reading about the delights of travel is 

 an excellent thing provided .we cannot 

 travel. To use a telescope is really to 

 travel. We literally see the wonderful 

 sights and actually experience all the 

 thrills. It is difficult to describe the pecu- 

 liar sensation of sitting' at the eyepiece 

 of a telescope in the quiet of a cloudless 

 night to watch the moving shadow of 

 one of Jupiter's satellites slowdy trailing 

 across the colored cloud belts, or great 

 Saturn's shadow edge thrown against the 

 white surface of the encircling rings. 

 Although these enormous bodies are 

 swinging in their orbits with iticredible 

 speed, and an hundred million miles 

 away, one is impressed by the feeling that 

 one is suspended in space from some in- 

 visible vantage point to watch their noise- 



