Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Publications, Vol. 1: Second Series
It has seemed desirable before describing the installation, to give some account of the initiation and development of the undertaking, as only when the methods of develop ment are brought out will the account be complete and the description thoroughly understood. In the development of the radial velocity work by the writer at the Dominion Astronomical Observatory, Ottawa, a stage was reached where it was recognized that the field of useful work with so comparatively small an aperture as 15 inches would soon be seriously limited. Even with single prism dispersion, 33 A per millimetre at H7, stars fainter than photographic magnitude required impracticable exposure times and furthermore it was deemed inadvisable to Observe, with such low dispersion, stars with good lines, when much more accurate values could be Obtained with greater dispersion. Thus the field was limited to spectroscopic binaries of early type, brighter than magnitude and it was evident that, with a telescope Of 15-inch aperture, the available stars for observation would soon be exhausted. Hence, when the need for larger telescopic aperture made itself felt, it was natural to be on the lookout for Opportunity to secure it. Plans for such additional equipment began to take more concrete shape at the Mt. Wilson meeting of the International Union for Co-operation in Solar Research in 1910, which I had the good fortune and honour to attend as representative of the Dominion Astronomical Observatory. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
