THE ALTAZIMUTH DEPARTMENT
The determining of the places of the fixed stars which Flamsteed carried out so efficiently in his British Catalogue of Stars—the first 'Census of the Sky' made with the aid of a telescope—was but half of the work imposed upon him. The other half, equally necessary for the solution of the problem of the longitude at sea, was the 'Rectifying the Tables of the Motions of the Heavens.'
This second duty was not less necessary than the other, for, if we may again use the old simile of the clock-face, the fixed stars may be taken to represent the figures on the vast dial of the sky, whilst the moon, as it moves amongst them, corresponds to the moving hand of the timepiece. To know the places of the stars, then, without being able to predict the place of the moon, would be much like having a clock without its hands. But if not less necessary, it was certainly more difficult. The secret of the movements of the moon and planets had not then been grasped, and the only tables which had been calculated were based upon observations made before the days of telescopes.
It is one of the most fortunate and remarkable coincidences in the whole history of science, that at the very time that Greenwich Observatory was being called into existence, the greatest of all astronomers was working out his demonstration of the great fundamental law of the material universe—the law that every particle of matter attracts every other particle with a force which varies directly with the mass and inversely with the square of the distance.
Several other of the great minds of that time, in particular Dr. Hooke, the Gresham Professor of Astronomy, had seen that it was possible that some such law might supply the secret of planetary motion; but it is one thing to make a suggestion, and a very different matter indeed to be able to demonstrate it; and the latter was in Newton's power alone. He did much more than demonstrate it—he brought out a whole series of most important and far-reaching consequences. He showed that the ebb and flow of the tides was due to the attraction of both sun and moon, especially the latter, upon the waters of our oceans. He pointed out certain irregularities which must take place in the motion of our moon, due to the influence of the sun upon it. He showed, too, what was the cause of that swinging of the axis of the earth which gives rise to precession. He deduced the relative weights of the earth, the sun, and of Jupiter and Saturn, the planets with satellites. He proved also that comets, which had seemed hitherto to men as perfectly lawless wanderers, obeyed in their orbits the self-same law which governed the moon and planets. The whole vast system of celestial movements, which had long seemed to men irregular and uncontrolled, now fell, every one of them, into its place, as but the necessary manifestations of one grand, simple order.
This great discovery gave a new and additional importance to the regular observation of the moon and planets. They were needed now, not only to assist in the practical work of navigation, but for the development of questions of pure science. Halley, the second Astronomer Royal, and Maskelyne, the fifth, devoted themselves chiefly to this department of work, to the partial neglect of the observation of the places of stars. Airy, the seventh, whilst making catalogue-work a part of the regular routine of the Observatory, developed the observation of the members of the solar system, and especially of the moon, in a most marked degree, and collected and completely reduced the vast mass of material which the industry of his predecessors had gathered. It is pre-eminently of the work of Airy that the memorable words quoted before of Professor Newcomb, the great American mathematician and astronomer, are applicable: 'that if this branch of astronomy were entirely lost, it could be reconstructed from the Greenwich observations alone.'
A most important step taken by Airy was the construction of an altazimuth. An altazimuth is practically a theodolite on a large scale. Its purpose is to determine, not the declination and right ascension of some celestial body, as is the case with the transit circle, but its altitude, i.e. its height above the horizon, and its azimuth, i.e. the angle measured on the horizontal plane from the north point. The altazimuth, then, like the transit circle, consists of a telescope revolving on a horizontal axis, but, unlike the transit circle, both the telescope and the piers which carry its pivots can be rotated so as to point not merely due north and south, but in any direction whatsoever.
AIRY'S ALTAZIMUTH.
The observations with the altazimuth are rather more complicated than those with the transit circle. Looking in the telescope, the observer sees a double set of spider threads or 'wires'; and when a star or other heavenly body enters the field, it will generally be observed to move obliquely across both sets of wires. The observer usually determines to make an observation either in altitude or azimuth. In the former case he presses the little contact button, which, as in the transit circle, is provided close to the eyepiece, as the star reaches each of the horizontal wires in succession. If in azimuth, it is the times of crossing the vertical wires that are in like manner telegraphed to the chronograph. The transit over, the appropriate circle is read; for the telescope itself is rigidly attached to a vertical wheel having a carefully engraved circle on its face and read by four microscopes, whilst the entire instrument carries another set of microscopes, pointing to a fixed horizontal circle, and upon which the azimuth can be read. A complete observation involves four such transits and sets of circle readings, two of altitude, and two of azimuth; for after one of altitude and one of azimuth the telescope is turned round, and a second observation is taken in each element.
The observation gives us the altitude and azimuth of the star. These particulars are of no direct value to us. But it is a mere matter of computation, though a long and laborious one, to convert these elements into right ascension and declination.
The usefulness of the altazimuth will be seen at once. It will be remembered that with the transit circle any particular object can only be observed as it crosses the meridian. If the weather should be cloudy, or the observer late, the chance of observation is lost for four and twenty hours, and in the case of the moon, for which the altazimuth is specially used, it is on the meridian only in broad daylight during that part of the month which immediately precedes and follows new moon. At such times it is practically impossible to observe it with the transit circle; with the altazimuth it may be caught in the twilight before sunrise or after sunset; and at other times in the month, if lost on the meridian in the transit circle, the altazimuth still gives the observer a chance of catching it any time before it sets. But for this instrument, our observations of the moon would have been practically impossible over at least one-fourth of its orbit.
Airy's altazimuth was but a small instrument of three and three-quarter inches aperture, mounted in a high tower built on the site of Flamsteed's mural arc; and, after a life history of about half a century, has been succeeded by a far more powerful instrument. The 'New Altazimuth' has an aperture of eight inches, and is housed in a very solidly constructed building of striking appearance, the connection of the Observatory with navigation being suggested by a row of circular lights which strongly recall a ship's portholes. This building is at the southern end of the narrow passage, 'the wasp's waist,' which connects the older Observatory domain with the newer. It is the first building we come to in the south ground. The computations of the department are carried on in the south wing of the new Observatory.
It will be seen from the photograph that the instrument is much larger, heavier, and less easy to move in azimuth than the old altazimuth. It is, therefore, not often moved in azimuth, but is set in some particular direction, not necessarily north and south, in which it is used practically as a transit circle.
NEW ALTAZIMUTH BUILDING.
There is quite another way of determining the place of the moon, which is sometimes available, and which offers one of the prettiest of observations to the astronomer. As the moon travels across the sky, moving amongst the stars from west to east, it necessarily passes in front of some of them, and hides them from us for a time. Such a passage, or 'occultation,' offers two observations: the 'disappearance,' as the moon comes up to the star and covers it; the 'reappearance,' as it leaves it again, and so discloses it.
THE NEW ALTAZIMUTH.
(From a photograph by Mr. Lacey.)
Except at the exact time of full moon, we do not see the entire face of our satellite; one edge or 'limb' is in darkness. As the moon therefore passes over the star, either the limb at which the star disappears, or that at which it reappears, is invisible to us. To watch an occultation at the bright limb is pretty; the moon, with its shining craters and black hollows, its mountain ranges in bright relief, like a model in frosted silver, slowly, surely, inevitably comes nearer and nearer to the little brilliant which it is going to eclipse. The movement is most regular, most smooth, yet not rapid. The observer glances at his clock, and marks the minute as the two heavenly bodies come closer and closer to each other. Then he counts the clock beats: 'five, six, seven,' it may be, as the star has been all but reached by the advancing moon. 'Eight,' it is still clear; ere the beat of the clock rings to the 'nine,' perhaps the little diamond point has been touched by the wide arch of the moon's limb, and has gone! Less easy to exactly time is a reappearance at the bright limb. In this case the observer must ascertain from the Nautical Almanac precisely where the star will reappear; then a little before the predicted time he takes his place at the telescope, watches intently the moon's circumference at the point indicated, and, listening for the clock-beats, counts the seconds as they fly. Suddenly, without warning, a pin-point of light flashes out at the edge of the moon, and at once draws away from it. The star has 'reappeared.'
Far more striking is a disappearance or reappearance at the 'dark limb.' In this case the limb of the moon is absolutely invisible, and it may be that no part of the moon is visible in the field of the telescope. In this case the observer sees a star shining brightly and alone in the middle of the field of his telescope. He takes the time from his faithful clock, counting beat after beat, when suddenly the star is gone! So sudden is the disappearance that the novice feels almost as astonished as if he had received a slap in the face, and not unfrequently he loses all count or recollection of the clock beats. The reappearance at the dark limb is quite as startling; with a bright star it is almost as if a shell had burst in his very face, and it would require no very great imagination to make him think that he had heard the explosion. One moment nothing was visible; now a great star is shining down serenely on the watcher. A little practice soon enables the observer to accustom himself to these effects, and an old hand finds no more difficulty in observing an occultation of any kind than in taking a transit.
Such an observation is useful for more purposes than one. If the position of the star occulted is known—and it can be determined at leisure afterwards—we necessarily know where the limb of the moon was at the time of the observation. Then the time which the moon took to pass over the star enables us to calculate the diameter of our satellite; the different positions of the moon relative to the star, as seen from different observatories, enable us to calculate its distance.
But if the disappearance takes place at the bright limb, the reappearance usually takes place at the dark, and vice versâ; and the two observations are not quite comparable. There is one occasion, however, when both observations are made under similar circumstances, namely, at the full. And if the moon happens also to be totally eclipsed, the occultations of quite faint stars can be successfully observed, much fainter than can ordinarily be seen close up to the moon. Total eclipses of the moon, therefore, have recently come to be looked upon as important events for the astronomer, and observatories the world over usually co-operate in watching them. October 4, 1884, was the first occasion when such an organised observation was made; there have been several since, and on these nights every available telescope and observer at Greenwich is called into action.
It may be asked why these different modes of observing the moon are still kept up, year in and year out. 'Do we not know the moon's orbit sufficiently well, especially since the discovery of gravitation?' No; we do not. This simple and beautiful law—simple enough in itself, gives rise to the most amazing complexity of calculation. If the earth and moon were the only two bodies in the universe, the problem would be a simple one. But the earth, sun, and moon are members of a triple system, each of which is always acting on both of the others. More, the planets, too, have an appreciable influence, and the net result is a problem so intricate that our very greatest mathematicians have not thoroughly worked it out. Our calculations of the moon's motions need, therefore, to be continually compared with observation, need even to be continually corrected by it.
There is a further reason for this continual observation, not only in the case of the sun, which is our great standard star, since from it we derive the right ascensions of the stars, and it is also our great timekeeper; not only in that of the moon, but also in the case of the planets. Their places as computed need continually to be compared with their places as observed, and the discordances, if any, inquired into. The great triumph which resulted to science from following this course—to pure science, since Uranus is too faint a planet to be any help to the sailor in navigation—is well known. The observed movements of Uranus proved not to be in accord with computation, and from the discordances between calculation and observation Adams and Leverrier were able to predicate the existence of a hitherto unseen planet beyond—
'To see it, as Columbus saw America from Spain. Its movements were felt by them trembling along the far-reaching line of their analysis, with a certainty hardly inferior to that of ocular demonstration.'[5]
The discovery of Neptune was not made at Greenwich, and Airy has been often and bitterly attacked because he did not start on the search for the predicted planet the moment Adams addressed his first communication to him, and so allowed the French astronomer to engross so much of the honour of the exploit. The controversy has been argued over and over again, and we may be content to leave it alone here. There is one point, however, which is hardly ever mentioned, which must have had much effect in determining Airy's conduct. In 1845, the year in which Adams sent his provisional elements of the unseen disturbing planet to Airy, the largest telescope available for the search at Greenwich was an equatorial of only six and three-quarter inches aperture, provided with small and insufficient circles for determining positions, and housed in a very small and inconvenient dome; whilst at Cambridge, within a mile or so of Adams' own college, was the 'Northumberland' equatorial, of nearly twelve inches aperture, under the charge of the University Professor of Astronomy, Professor Challis, and which was then much the largest, best mounted and housed equatorial in the entire country. The 'Northumberland' had been begun from Airy's designs and under his own superintendence, when he was Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge. Naturally, then, knowing how much superior the Cambridge telescope was to any which he had under his care, he thought the search should be made with it. He had no reason to believe that his own instrument was competent for the work.
THE NEW OBSERVATORY AS SEEN FROM FLAMSTEED'S OBSERVATORY.
On the other hand, it is hard for the ordinary man to understand how it was that Adams not only left unnoticed and unanswered for three-quarters of a year, an inquiry of Airy's with respect to his calculations, but also never took the trouble to visit Challis, whom he knew well, and who was so near at hand, to stir him up to the search. But, in truth, the whole interest of the matter for Adams rested in the mathematical problem. The irregularities in the motion of Uranus were interesting to him simply for the splendid opportunity which they gave him for their analysis. A purely imaginary case would have served his purpose nearly as well. The actuality of the planet which he predicted was of very little moment; the éclat and popular reputation of the discovery was less than nothing; the problem itself and the mental exercise in its solution, were what he prized.
But it was not creditable to the nation that the Royal Observatory should have been so ill-provided with powerful telescopes; and a few years later Airy obtained the sanction of the Government for the erection of an equatorial larger than the 'Northumberland,' but on the same general plan and in a much more ample dome. This was for thirty-four years the 'Great' or 'South-East' equatorial, and the mounting still remains and bears the old name, though the original telescope has been removed elsewhere. The object-glass had an aperture of twelve and three-quarter inches and a focal length of eighteen feet, and was made by Merz of Munich, the engineering work by Ransomes and Sims of Ipswich, and the graduations and general optical work by Simms, now of Charlton, Kent. The mounting was so massive and stable that the present Astronomer Royal has found it quite practicable and safe to place upon it a telescope (with its counterpoises) of many times the weight, one made by Sir Howard Grubb, of Dublin, of twenty-eight inches aperture and twenty-eight feet focal length, the largest refractor in the British Empire, though surpassed by several American and Continental instruments.
The stability of the mounting was intended to render the telescope suitable for a special work. This was the observation of 'minor planets.' On the first day of the present century the first of these little bodies was discovered by Piazzi at Palermo. Three more were discovered at no great interval afterwards, and then there was an interval of thirty-eight years without any addition to their number. But from December 8, 1845, up to the present time, the work of picking up fresh individuals of these 'pocket planets' has gone on without interruption, until now more than 400 are known. Most of these are of no interest to us, but a few come sufficiently near to the earth for their distance to be very accurately determined; and when the distance of one member of the solar system is determined, those of all the others can be calculated from the relations which the law of gravitation reveals to us. It is a matter of importance, therefore, to continue the work of discovery, since we may at any time come across an interesting or useful member of the family; and that we may be able to distinguish between minor planets already discovered and new ones, their orbits must be determined as they are discovered, and some sort of watch kept on their movements.
A striking example of the scientific prizes which we may light upon in the process of the rather dreary and most laborious work which the minor planets cause, has been recently supplied by the discovery of Eros. On August 13, 1898, Herr Witt, of the Urania Observatory, Berlin, discovered a very small planet that was moving much faster in the sky than is common with these small bodies. The great majority are very much farther from the sun than the planet Mars, many of them twice as far, and hence, since the time of a planet's revolution round the sun increases, in accordance with Kepler's law, more rapidly than does its distance, it follows that they move much more slowly than Mars. But this new object was moving at almost the same speed as Mars; it must, therefore, be most unusually near to us. Further observations soon proved that this was the case, and Eros, as the little stranger has been called, comes nearer to us than any other body of which we are aware except the moon. Venus when in transit is 241/2 millions of miles from us, Mars at its nearest is 341/2 millions, Eros at its nearest approach is but little over 13 millions.
The use of such a body to us is, of course, quite apart from any purpose of navigation, except very indirectly. But it promises to be of the greatest value in the solution of a question in which astronomers must always feel an interest, the determination of the distance of the earth from the sun. We know the relative distances of the different planets, and, consequently if we could determine the absolute distance of any one, we should know the distances of all. As it is practically impossible to measure our distance from the sun directly, several attempts have been made to determine the distances of Venus, Mars, or such of the minor planets as come the nearest to us. Three of these in particular, the little planets Iris, Victoria, and Sappho, have given us the most accurate determinations of the sun's distance (92,874,000 miles) which we have yet obtained; but Eros at its nearest approach will be six times as near to us as either of the three mentioned above, and therefore should give us a value with only one-sixth of the uncertainty attaching to that just mentioned.
The discovery of minor planets has lain outside the scope of Greenwich work, but their observation has formed an integral part of it. The general public is apt to lay stress rather on the first than on the second, and to think it rather a reproach to Greenwich that it has taken no part in such explorations. Experience has, however, shown that they may be safely left to amateur activity, whilst the monotonous drudgery of the observation of minor planets can only be properly carried out in a permanent institution.
The observation of these minute bodies with the transit circle and altazimuth is attended with some difficulties; but precise observations of various objects may be made with an equatorial; indeed, comets are usually observed by its means.
The most ordinary way of observing a comet with an equatorial is as follows: Two bars are placed in the eye-piece of the telescope, at right angles to each other, and at an angle of forty-five degrees to the direction of the apparent daily motion of the stars. The telescope is turned to the neighbourhood of the comet, and moved about until it is detected. The telescope is then put a little in front of the comet, and very firmly fixed. The observer soon sees the comet entering his field, and by pressing the contact button he telegraphs to the chronograph the time when the comet is exactly bisected by each of the bars successively. He then waits until a bright star, or it may be two or three, have entered the telescope and been observed in like manner. The telescope is then unclamped, and moved forward until it is again ahead of the comet, and the observations are repeated; and this is done as often as is thought desirable. The places of the stars have, of course, to be found out from catalogues, or have to be observed with the transit circle, but when they are known the position of the comet or minor planet can easily be inferred.
Next to the glory of having been the means of bringing about the publication of Newton's Principia, the greatest achievement of Halley, the second Astronomer Royal, was that he was the first to predict the return of a comet. Newton had shown that comets were no lawless wanderers, but were as obedient to gravitation as were the planets themselves, and he also showed how the orbit of a comet could be determined from observations on three different dates. Following these principles, Halley computed the orbits of no fewer than twenty-four comets, and found that three of them, visible at intervals of about seventy-five years, pursued practically the same path. He concluded, therefore, that these were really different appearances of the same object, and, searching old records, he found reason to believe that it had been observed frequently earlier still. It seems, in fact, to have been the comet which is recorded to have been seen in 1066 in England at the time of the Norman invasion; in A.D. 66, shortly before the commencement of that war which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus; and earlier still, so far back as B.C. 12. Halley, however, experienced a difficulty in his investigation. The period of the comet's revolution was not always the same. This, he concluded, must be due to the attraction of the planets near which the comet might chance to travel. In the summer of 1681 it had passed very close to Jupiter, for instance, and in consequence he expected that instead of returning in August 1757, seventy-five years after its last appearance, it would not return until the end of 1758 or the beginning of 1759. It has returned twice since Halley's day, a triumphant verification of the law of gravitation; and we are looking for it now for a third return some ten years hence, in 1910.
Halley's comet, therefore, is an integral member of our solar system, as much so as the earth or Neptune, though it is utterly unlike them in appearance and constitution, and though its path is so utterly unlike theirs that it approaches the sun nearer than our earth, and recedes farther than Neptune. But there are other comets, which are not permanent members of our system, but only passing visitors. From the unfathomed depths of space they come, to those depths they go. They obey the law of gravitation so far as our sight can follow them, but what happens to them beyond? Do they come under some other law, or, perchance, in outermost space is there still a region reserved to primeval Chaos, the 'Anarch old,' where no law at all prevails? Gravitation is the bond of the solar system; is it also the bond of the Universe?