On the crest of Echo Mountain Professor Lowe placed two hotels, one "The Chalet," which still remains, the other, "Echo Mountain House," which was destroyed by fire three years ago. It was a superbly equipped hotel, of magnificent proportions and unequalled outlook, where many visitors from all parts of the world congregated. It is the intention of the Pacific Electric Railway to rebuild Echo Mountain House in the near future. This decision will be gratifying to those who have experienced the delights of this beautiful hotel in the past. The exact location of the new hotel is not yet decided.
LOWE OBSERVATORY, With Hotel and Buildings on Echo Mountain, Mount Lowe Railway, after a Snow Fall.
[Lowe Observatory.]
This Observatory is located on a slope above Echo Mountain. A walk has been constructed from the Hotel to the Observatory, so that all who desire to visit it may do so without inconvenience or fatigue.
It is presided over by Professor Edgar Larkin. The instrument with which he is now searching the heavens is a 16-inch refractor, made in his best days, by Alvan Clark, the late lamented lens-maker of Cambridge, Mass., and it is, according to the maker's testimony, the best glass he ever made.
Professor Larkin thus writes of the advantages of the Lowe Observatory for astronomical work:
"The site of this institution is ideal, both for telescopic and spectroscopic purposes. So great is the purity of the air that both these instruments can be used in the most accurate measurement. The definition of the stars and disks of the planets is perfect, and the entire year presents but few nights during which a micrometer cannot be used. Stellar spectra are clear cut and steady, and in the solar spectrum the Fraunhofer lines are perfectly defined, the thin lines, in diameter equal to that of a spider's web, can be seen without difficulty. Few observatories in the world have a clearer sky, or a location presenting less trouble from air currents and changes. To illustrate the clearness of the atmosphere, it will be merely necessary to state that the trapezium in the Great Nebula in Orion shows distinctly at the exact instant of rising over the mountain peaks! The writer has often observed the trapezium—the entire seven stars—when only one minute had elapsed since rising over the rocks forming the summit of the mountains! This will be appreciated by all who have long used a telescope in any of the Eastern observatories. The moon is white—not yellow, and the floors of the craters, the cones, whence escaped molten lava ages ago, and the delicate tracery of shadows are revealed with marvellous accuracy of detail.
The 16 inch Equatorial Telescope of the Lowe Observatory, Echo Mountain.