Astronomy and the Bible;

THEOPENSPACEINORION 247

Thesystematicstudyofthenebulaebeganwiththe
gigantic laborsof William HerschelatSlough. He
determined tomake a complete surveyof theentire
heavens,andtonotealltheobjectsofinteresthecould
detect. Toone notfamiliar withthe useof atele-
scope,thismaynotseemtobemuchofatask;buta
fewfactswill makeclearthegreatlaborsnecessary.
Persons lookingthroughthetelescope forthefirst
time,expecttoseealltheskyasobservedbytheun-
aidedeye;butwhilethetelescopemakesasmallarea
looklarger,onlyasmallpartoftheskyiswithinthe
fieldofthetelescope.
Forexample,evenalargetelescopecantakeinonly
onehalftheareaofthemoonatoneview. Toseeall
ofthemoon,itisnecessarytomovetheinstrumentup
anddownandtotherightandtheleftalittle.
Youknowthatthemoonoccupiesonlyasmallpor-
tionof thesky; yet,smallas itis,thetelescopecan
takeinatoneviewonlyaboutonehalfofit. Suppose
theheavenswithinourviewtobecoveredoverwith
moonsclosetogether. Theywouldmakeofournorth-
ern sky amosaic containingabout one hundredand
twenty-five thousand moons. As a good telescope
couldshowbutonehalfofeachmoonataview,there
wouldbeabouttwohundredandfiftythousandsepa-
ratefieldsofviewforthetelescope.
ThusyouwillseethatHerschelsetouttolookata
quarterofamillionseparatespotsintheheavens,to
noteeverythingofinterestwithinsight,andtomake
suitablenotationsofthem,withexactlocationofeach
object.