[Illustration: Fig. 17. Hubble's Variable Nebula. One of the few nebulæ known to vary in brightness and form.
Photographed with the 100-inch telescope (Hubble).]
A remarkable use of the 100-inch telescope, which permits its full theoretical resolving power to be not merely attained but to be doubled, has been made possible by the first application of Michelson's interference method to the measurement of very close double stars. When employing this, the 100-inch mirror is completely covered, except for two slits. Beams of light from a star, entering by the slits, unite at the focus of the telescope, where the image is examined by an eyepiece magnifying about five thousand diameters. Across the enlarged star image a series of fine, sharp fringes is seen, even when the atmospheric conditions are poor. If the star is single the fringes remain visible, whatever the distance between the slits. But in the case of a star like Capella, previously inferred to be double from the periodic displacement of the lines in its spectrum, but with components too close together to be distinguished separately, the fringes behave differently. As the slits are moved apart a point is reached where the fringes completely disappear, only to reappear as the separation is continued. This effect is obtained when the slits are at right angles to the line joining the two stars of the pair, found by this method to be 0.0418 of a second of arc apart (on December 30, 1919). Subsequent measures, of far greater precision than those obtainable by other methods in the case of easily separated double stars, show the rapid orbital motion of the components of the system. This device will be applied to other close binaries, hitherto beyond the reach of measurement.
[Illustration: Fig. 18. Ring Nebula in Lyra, photographed with the 60-inch (Ritchey) and 100-inch (Duncan) telescopes.
Showing the increased scale of the images given by the larger instrument.]
Without entering into further details of the tests, it is evident that the new telescope will afford boundless possibilities for the study of the stellar universe.[*] The structure and extent of the galactic system, and the motions of the stars comprising it; the distribution, distances, and dimensions of the spiral nebulæ, their motions, rotation, and mode of development; the origin of the stars and the successive stages in their life history: these are some of the great questions which the new telescope must help to answer. In such an embarrassment of riches the chief difficulty is to withstand the temptation toward scattering of effort, and to form an observing programme directed toward the solution of crucial problems rather than the accumulation of vast stores of miscellaneous data. This programme will be supplemented by an extensive study of the sun, the only star near enough the earth to be examined in detail, and by a series of laboratory investigations involving the experimental imitation of solar and stellar conditions, thus aiding in the interpretation of celestial phenomena.