We have merely to photograph the region at various seasons of the
year. Careful examination of the photographs under the microscope
will then enable us to measure the slightest displacement of the
parallax star. From these measures, by a process of calculation,
astronomers can then obtain the star's distance. It will not
become known in miles; we shall only ascertain how many times the
distance between the earth and sun would have to be laid down like
a measuring-rod, in order to cover the space separating us from the
star: and the subsequent evaluation of this distance "earth to sun"
in miles is another important problem in whose solution photography
promises to be most useful.
The above method of measuring stellar distance is, of course,
subject to whatever slight uncertainty arises from the assumption
that the small stars used for comparison are themselves beyond the
possibility of parallactic shifting. But astronomy possesses no
better method. Moreover, the number of small stars used in this
way is, of course, much larger in photography than it ever can be
in visual work. In the former process, all surrounding stars can
be photographed at once; in the latter each star must be measured
separately, and daylight soon intervenes to impose a limit on
numbers. Usually only two can be used; so that here photography
has a most important advantage. It minimizes the chance of our
parallax being rendered erroneous, by the stars of comparison not
being really infinitely remote. This might happen, perhaps, in the
case of one or two; but with an average result from a large number
we know it to be practically impossible.
Cluster work is not altogether unlike "parallax hunting" in its
preliminary stage of securing the photographic observations. The
object is to obtain an absolutely faithful picture of a star group,
just as it exists in the sky. We have every reason to suppose
that a very large number of stars condensed into one small spot
upon the heavens means something more than chance aggregation.
The Pleiades group (page 10) contains thousands of massive stars,
doubtless held together by the force of their mutual gravitational
attraction. If this be true, there must be complex orbital motion
in the cluster; and, as time goes on, we should actually see the
separate components change their relative positions, as it were,
before our eyes. The details of such motion upon the great scale
of cosmic space offer one of the many problems that make astronomy
the grandest of human sciences.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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