At first, the contents appeared little different from any such volume. More of a reference text than observing guide, this book begins with the planet Earth and moves outward. In turn, the moon, the planets and other solar system objects are presented. The front plate features the Lick Observatory, and most photographs are credited to the Yerkes Observatory. Portraits of famous astronomers are scattered throughout the text.
Digging deeper uncovered some curiosities. Several explanations for the craters on the moon—volcanic, gaseous eruption and impact theories—are all discussed, but this issue is left essentially unresolved. And apparently there was as much speculation about life on Mars then as there is today. Evidence for vegetation on Mars' surface is presented along with Lowell’s arguments for intelligent civilizations, though that possibility is largely discarded. A full page is given to what adaptations Martian life must have to survive there and to the real likelihood that life exists on other planets around other suns.
The most anachronistic section is certainly that devoted to the power source for the Sun. A “contraction theory,” the release of gravitational energy as the Sun shrinks, is presented as the most convincing. Chemical combustion and meteoric (kinetic energy adding to gravitational) hypotheses are considered untenable. Today, we know that fusion of hydrogen into helium drives stars, including our own: there is no mention of nuclear theories here.
Nearly detached from the cracked binding are small star charts depicting the north polar region and four equatorial sections—far southern stars are not shown. While these charts are probably too limited to be useful at night, the startlingly difference comes in constellation boundaries that flow around the sky in free form. These charts predate today’s official constellations bordered along lines of right ascension and declination.
Space was evidently much smaller in the 1920’s. Ending with a chapter on various nebulae, the “spiral nebulae” are explained as solar systems disrupted gravitationally by passing clusters of stars. Though admitting that the Milky Way may have a similarly spiral structure, the idea that spiral nebulae represent distant, galactic island universes is largely dismissed. The clustered distribution of galaxies around the sky, their central condensation, and dark streaks seen edgewise all count against what would eventually be revealed as an immensely larger universe.
I wonder: this copy of “Introduction to Astronomy” was previously owned by one Virgil B. Wiley of Washington, D.C. For us, the past year has been a celebration of astro-history: with 10th anniversaries, browsing of old magazines, the transit of Venus, and even a visit by Edmund Halley himself. While we have the benefit of looking back over these decades, has Mr. Wiley has also enjoyed how much our knowledge of the universe has grown in the past century?
Moondark is written by Doug Miller, published at the Moondark web site, and printed in the Delmarva Star Gazers' Star Gazer News. This document was last revised on 26 September 2004. Text and images copyright © 2004 by Douglas C. Miller, All Rights Reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without prior permission.
