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Show t&' 1' I i THINGS I I UNUSUAL t - By T. T. MAXEY $ v 1h i. l'.'-i. Wtstcrn Newspaper Uaiiiii.) THE YERKES OBSERVATORY To avoid the fine and numerous-rarticles numerous-rarticles of dust and smoke which naturally hover in the air over a big city and cut down the effectiveness of the observations, the jarring even though minute wlueh upsets the calculations cal-culations of the observers, and the disturbing reflections from the night illumination, powerful telescopes are usually stationed at points where these conditions do not have to be reckoned with. Accordingly, the great Terkes observatory ob-servatory (connected with the University Uni-versity of Chicago) one of the greatest great-est of all the astronomical laboratories labora-tories on earth, is perched upon the crest of a bluff above beautiful Lake Geneva, near the town of 'Williams Bay, 'Wis. about seventy miles northwest north-west of Chicago. In the largest of the three domes which surmount the observatory Is mounted the world's largest refracting telescope. It Is also the busiest telescope, tele-scope, being in use both v day and night the year round, w-eather conditions condi-tions permitting. In the center of this dome, which Is 75-feet in diameter on the inside, balanced bal-anced across the great pier which rests upon a solid foundation of concrete con-crete and supports the weight, is the barrel of this tremendous instrument. It is 62 feet long and weighs about 12,000 pounds. Each of the two great lenses which fit inside of this barrel are forty inches across. The barrel of this instrument can be swung around In any direction and raised or lowered to any angle ; the floor of the dome is movable and the entire roof of the dome revolves all" to the end that the observer can observe ob-serve in any direction and at any angle necessary in order to properly perform the particular job In hand. After the barrel has been focused It can be adjusted to follow and keep In view the object under observation, relieving re-lieving the observer of having to stop occasionally and focus his telescope. Adjustment as small as one-one-hundredth of an inch, can be made. With this telescope observers have been enabled to determine, with great exactness, the positions of stars In clusters and the disfances between them. Stellar photographs taken, using the telescope as a camera, are among the best yet secured. The brightness of stars also is measurable with this instrument. |