The Telescope Of The Rocky Mountains

: From The Earth To The Moon

On the 20th of October in the preceding year, after the close of

the subscription, the president of the Gun Club had credited the

Observatory of Cambridge with the necessary sums for the

construction of a gigantic optical instrument. This instrument

was designed for the purpose of rendering visible on the surface

of the moon any object exceeding nine feet in diameter.



At the period when the Gun Club essa ed their great experiment,

such instruments had reached a high degree of perfection,

and produced some magnificent results. Two telescopes in

particular, at this time, were possessed of remarkable power

and of gigantic dimensions. The first, constructed by Herschel,

was thirty-six feet in length, and had an object-glass of four

feet six inches; it possessed a magnifying power of 6,000.

The second was raised in Ireland, in Parsonstown Park, and belongs

to Lord Rosse. The length of this tube is forty-eight feet, and

the diameter of its object-glass six feet; it magnifies 6,400

times, and required an immense erection of brick work and

masonry for the purpose of working it, its weight being twelve

and a half tons.



Still, despite these colossal dimensions, the actual

enlargements scarcely exceeded 6,000 times in round numbers;

consequently, the moon was brought within no nearer an apparent

distance than thirty-nine miles; and objects of less than sixty

feet in diameter, unless they were of very considerable length,

were still imperceptible.



In the present case, dealing with a projectile nine feet in

diameter and fifteen feet long, it became necessary to bring the

moon within an apparent distance of five miles at most; and for

that purpose to establish a magnifying power of 48,000 times.



Such was the question proposed to the Observatory of Cambridge,

There was no lack of funds; the difficulty was purely one

of construction.



After considerable discussion as to the best form and principle

of the proposed instrument the work was finally commenced.

According to the calculations of the Observatory of Cambridge,

the tube of the new reflector would require to be 280 feet in

length, and the object-glass sixteen feet in diameter.

Colossal as these dimensions may appear, they were diminutive

in comparison with the 10,000 foot telescope proposed by the

astronomer Hooke only a few years ago!



Regarding the choice of locality, that matter was

promptly determined. The object was to select some lofty

mountain, and there are not many of these in the United States.

In fact there are but two chains of moderate elevation, between

which runs the magnificent Mississippi, the "king of rivers"

as these Republican Yankees delight to call it.



Eastwards rise the Appalachians, the very highest point of

which, in New Hampshire, does not exceed the very moderate

altitude of 5,600 feet.



On the west, however, rise the Rocky Mountains, that immense

range which, commencing at the Straights of Magellan, follows

the western coast of Southern America under the name of the

Andes or the Cordilleras, until it crosses the Isthmus of

Panama, and runs up the whole of North America to the very

borders of the Polar Sea. The highest elevation of this range

still does not exceed 10,700 feet. With this elevation,

nevertheless, the Gun Club were compelled to be content,

inasmuch as they had determined that both telescope and

Columbiad should be erected within the limits of the Union.

All the necessary apparatus was consequently sent on to the

summit of Long's Peak, in the territory of Missouri.



Neither pen nor language can describe the difficulties of all

kinds which the American engineers had to surmount, of the

prodigies of daring and skill which they accomplished. They had

to raise enormous stones, massive pieces of wrought iron, heavy

corner-clamps and huge portions of cylinder, with an

object-glass weighing nearly 30,000 pounds, above the line of

perpetual snow for more than 10,000 feet in height, after

crossing desert prairies, impenetrable forests, fearful rapids,

far from all centers of population, and in the midst of savage

regions, in which every detail of life becomes an almost

insoluble problem. And yet, notwithstanding these innumerable

obstacles, American genius triumphed. In less than a year after

the commencement of the works, toward the close of September,

the gigantic reflector rose into the air to a height of 280 feet.

It was raised by means of an enormous iron crane; an ingenious

mechanism allowed it to be easily worked toward all the points

of the heavens, and to follow the stars from the one horizon to

the other during their journey through the heavens.



It had cost $400,000. The first time it was directed toward the

moon the observers evinced both curiosity and anxiety. What were

they about to discover in the field of this telescope which

magnified objects 48,000 times? Would they perceive peoples,

herds of lunar animals, towns, lakes, seas? No! there was

nothing which science had not already discovered! and on all the

points of its disc the volcanic nature of the moon became

determinable with the utmost precision.



But the telescope of the Rocky Mountains, before doing its duty

to the Gun Club, rendered immense services to astronomy. Thanks to

its penetrative power, the depths of the heavens were sounded to

the utmost extent; the apparent diameter of a great number of stars

was accurately measured; and Mr. Clark, of the Cambridge staff,

resolved the Crab nebula in Taurus, which the reflector of Lord

Rosse had never been able to decompose.