Show the Tele telescope rope Nope there is no amusement or occupation for a clear evening in waiter walter more interesting and instructing than the observation of the planets plane S and the starry heavens through a good telescope all that is necessary for its thorough enjoy enjoyment mentis ia such a knowledge of astron astronomy oiny olny and of the times and motions of the stars as a weeks diligent and careful study will give to any person of quick apprehension and fair intelligence there is no instrument of human invention which has enlarged the noblest of mans natural faculties so much as the telescope ai one among many examples of this enlargement lar gement of a natural faculty let us take a 1 glance lance at saturn one of the most wondern wonderful won derf i 11 objects in the heavens this planet is miles in diameter and millions illions of miles distant from the earth it is 13 surrounded by a circular ring which is miles wide miles thick and miles distant from the surface of the planet to the naked eye saturn appears merely a small dull star and its ring is 13 utterly invisible now observe what a power of on a good three inch achromatic telescope does for a nian man in respect to saturn it takes him up tip and setting him astride as it were on a flash of light light or of lightning it carries him in an instant of time a urney journey of 12 1 2 millions of miles towards r saturn that it places him exactly as near saturn as he would be placed a continuous contin lions journey by night and day for three thousand years at express railroad d speed steed it shows saturn larger than the moon I 1 if plainly its b bells beils his moons his wonderful 7 double ring and raakel his solid lid iid glou lf lford orm suspended arid sv swinging k kithil within th ring fing perfectly distinct and pal pai palpable able abie n to tha th eye A view of this planet T n et alonet alone on a clear night is worth the price of tach a telescope and the same is i R true of the 11 e view of jupiter with his moons and belts ot of our own moon of the revolving double stars of the glorious clusters of the great nebulae of orion and of many other of the superb sights scattered over the mighty dome of the nocturnal heavens which to the unaided eye are comparatively ively speaking t as nothing or next to not thih h constellation of orion which is generally considered the most beautiful and brilliant of all the constellations is now seen to great advantage as it reaches the meridian about ten and the centre of it is then directly over the celestial equator and midway between the north and south poles of the heavens it ia is then about forty degrees south of the zenith at the same time maybe may be seen sirius flaming fiercely and by far the brightest of the fixed stars it is situated twenty three degrees south of the three stars forming the belt of orion which point directly towards it its distance from the earth is proved to be at least twenty million million miles or so great that light which flies a million times faster than a cannon ball is three years in coming from it to the he erth its light and by inference its size also is proved to be fourteen times greater than that of the sun the telescope of lord rosse reveals a cession or perspective of nebula composed of millions upon millions of such stars or suns so distant that years is required for the passage of light from them to earth the fair conclusion is that there are incalculable millions of such masses of suns beyond the reach of any telescope so distant from each other and from the earth that i if a man were to employ his whole lifetime in mak ng a straight strai ht line of figures and each unit was to stand stant fora for a million of centuries the lie I 1 bum sum r um represented by that line would fall far short of expressing the smallest fraction of the time required forthe for the transi assion of to the earth from this may be formed some faint notion of the infinitely insignificant part which the earth and even the solar system plays in the mysterious game of creation and of the supreme folly arrogantly assuming jo to be its most important part jupiter is now the most brilliant and coi of the planets it rises now dow at about six and at nine marks a fine show at the northeast even to the naked eye A power of on a three inch telescope gives it a diameter aneter di five times and a disc more snore than twenty times as large arge as that of the full moon it shows also his belts and his four tour beautiful moons which change their relative positions every night it shows also the shadows of his moons as they pass across his disc saturn is now in the constellation of the lion and rises rises about two hours later than jupiter following in his wake in the ecliptic about thirty degrees distant from him towards the northeast to the naked eye it is merely a pale dull star but with a telescopic power of two hundred the most splendid and wonderful of all the heavenly bodies A few degrees to the left of jupiter is seen castor a single star to the unaided vision but with a power ower of the most beautiful of all the double jouble stars one efthem ot thern making a revolution about the other in about years about half halfway way between sirius and the constellation of orion is seen a small star in the constellation of the unicorn barely visible to the naked eye but hut with a power po berof of seen to be beautifully triple the pleiades or seven star sare now on the meridian about nine clock oy and afford a splendid object for the telescope at Attlies the ame same time towards the northwest and about thirty degrees up tip from the horizon blazes lyra one of or the most brilliant of the fixed stars just above it and forming a triangle with it are two little stars one of which with a power of is resolved into an exceedingly beautiful quadruple star the star in the tail tall of the great bearis bear is also aiso found to be a superb double star the planet venus may now be seen just after sunset far down at the southwest and with a power of is always an exceedingly exceedingly brilliant object lesesn resembling bling closely but muc much larger than the new moon the planet uranus is now on the meridian at ten his ills diameter is miles and his bis distance from the earth miles the moon itself becomes an object of inexpressible grandeur and sublimity when seen through the telescope with a power of the observer is 18 instantly carried over Q out of the miles of distance which divide us from it and is set down at a point only a thousand miles from its surface so that its spherical solidity chirlin whirling through space like a monstrous cannon baia ball bail its bl masted hasted asted and desolate appearance t its strange circular mountain sand volcanic craters come as real and palpable to the eye as the rocky precipices of rocky hill or the cliffis cliffs of east and west rock hartford times |