We have said that time must pass before we can see these things;
there may be centuries of waiting. But one way exists to hurry on
the perfection of our knowledge; we must increase the precision of
observations. Motions that would need the growth of centuries to
become visible to the older astronomical appliances, might yield
in a few decades to more delicate observational processes. Here
photography is most promising. Having once obtained a surpassingly
accurate picture of a star-cluster, we can subject it easily to
precise microscopic measurement. The same operations repeated at a
later date will enable us to compare the two series of measures,
and thus ascertain the motions that may have occurred in the
interval. The Rutherfurd photographs furnish a veritable mine of
information in researches of this kind; for they antedate all other
celestial photographs of precision by at least a quarter-century,
and bring just so much nearer the time when definite knowledge
shall replace information based on reasoning from probabilities.
Rutherfurd's methods showed the advantages of photography as
applied to individual star-clusters. It required only the attention
of some astronomer disposing of large observational facilities,
and accustomed to operations upon a great scale, to apply similar
methods throughout the whole heavens. In the year 1882 a bright
comet was very conspicuous in the southern heavens. It was
extensively observed from the southern hemisphere, and especially
at the British Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope.
Gill, director of that institution, conceived the idea that this
comet might be bright enough to photograph. At that time, comet
photography had been attempted but little, if at all, and it was
by no means sure that the experiment would be successful. Nor was
Gill well acquainted with the work of Rutherfurd; for the best
results of that astronomer had lain dormant many years. He was one
of those men with whom personal modesty amounts to a fault. Loath
to put himself forward in any way, and disliking to rush into
print, Rutherfurd had given but little publicity to his work. This
peculiarity has, doubtless, delayed his just reputation; but he
will lose nothing in the end from a brief postponement. Gill must,
however, be credited with more penetration than would be his due
if Rutherfurd had made it possible for others to know that he had
anticipated many of the newer ideas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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