SOME OPPORTUNITIES FOR ASTRONOMICAL WORK 
WITH INEXPENSIVE APPARATUS.* 
By Prof. Grorcr E. HALE, 
Director of the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory of the Carnegie Institution 
of Washington. 
I have sometimes heard it said that the great cost of modern ob- 
servatories tends to discourage workers with small instruments— 
observers who are no less interested in the pursuit of astronomical 
research than the astronomers in the large institutions. It seems to 
me that if there is any serious discouragement, due to this cause, of 
men who are engaged in original research with small telescopes and 
inexpensive apparatus, it 1s a question whether large observatories 
should be established. At any period in the progress of observa- 
tional astronomy there are two most important subjects for considera- 
tion. One relates to the accomplishment of a great amount of routine 
observation and the discussion of results, and the other relates to the 
introduction of new ideas and to the beginnings of the new methods 
which will make the astronomy of the future. I think we will all 
admit that the introduction of new ideas is quite as important as the 
prosecution of routine research, and that if any cause whatsoever 
tends to discourage the men from whom the new ideas might be likely 
to proceed, that cause of discouragement should be set aside if pos- 
sible. And therefore I say, with all seriousness, that it is a fair 
question whether large observatories, with powerful instrumental 
equipment, should be established if they tend to keep back the man 
who is pursuing the subject with less expensive appliances, and is 
introducing, through his careful consideration of the possibilities of 
research, the new methods which in the process, of time will take the 
place of the old ones. I think it can be shown, however, that the 
large observatories should be a help rather than a hindrance, at least 
by suggesting new possibilities of research, in which most valuable 
results can be obtained by simple means. 
7Stenographic report of a lecture delivered at the Royal Astronomical So- 
ciety, London, June 26, 1907. Reprinted, by permission, from the Monthly 
Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society November, 1907. 
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