KANSAS CLTY 
REVIEW OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY, 
A MONTHLY RECORD OF PROGRESS IN 
SCIENCE, MECHANIC ARTS AND LITERATURE. 
VOL. IV. JUNE, 1880. NO. 2. 
SI ONNOUMIG 
THE SUN AND PHENOMENA OF ITS SURFACE. 
BY WM. DAWSON, SPICELAND, IND. 
I have no doubt that the sun contributes much more to all the comforts and 
happiness that we enjoy in life than people generally think. It is very large and 
very distant. Our earth is a great body, and to travel round it—z5,o00 miles— 
is along journey. And yet this, more than three times 8,000 miles, is only one- 
ninth of the distance to the moon. Now if the sun were a hollow sphere and 
the earth placed in its center, the moon might be at its present distance from the 
earth and still be but slightly more than half way from the sun’s center to its sur- 
face. 
The diameter of this vast source of light and heat is given at 860,000 miles, 
and its distance at about 92,000,000. 
Presuming that readers of the Rrvirw already have a general knowledge of 
the spots on the sun, from an article on this subject in the Number for May, 
1879, I will now briefly recite the more important solar phenomena as presented 
in my six-feet telescope during last year; and then allude to the causes of sun 
Spots, and other matters with which they are supposed to be connected. 
During 1879, I observed the sun about every clear day the year through ; 
generally using a magnifying power of 100, furnished with a reflecting prism 
which admits the full aperture of the object-glass, 4,6, inches. This arrangement 
gives a more interesting view of the varied phenomena of the solar surface than 
the direct view with a common eye-piece, which requires a cap or diaphragm over 
‘the object-glass to prevent too much light and heat entering through the object- 
| IV—5 
