Cosmic Clouds
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Authors
Rigge, William F., S.J.
Issue Date
1922-04
Type
Article
Language
en_US
Keywords
Rigge Papers , Stars
Alternative Title
Abstract
First Paragraph: | In this age of large telescopes that are all exclusively photographic and devoted to the detailed analysis of the heavenly bodies, it would seem that visual observations and comprehensive surveys had been decided to be practically obsolete. It was therefore a great surprise, not only to the members of the Astronomische Gellschaft in Potsdam towards the end of last August, but to the astronomical world as a whole, to hear Father Hagen, of the Vatican Observatory, report that he had found the entire heavens visible to him very thickly overcast with more or less opaque and dark cosmic clouds, much as our own atmosphere is at times largely dotted with terrestrial ones. These dark clouds, of course, can betray their presence and their outlines only by the greater or less dimming effect they produce upon the luminous stars.