The LOWELL Observatory in Arizona
1894; Institute of Physics; Volume: 6; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1086/120825
ISSN1538-3873
Autores Tópico(s)Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation
ResumoMr. Percival Lowell has lately established an observatory near Flagstaff, Arizona, at an elevation of 7300 feet above the sea.* According to press telegrams, this station is connected with the Harvard College Observatory (Director, Professor Edward Pickering), and is to be under the charge of his brother, Professor William Pickering of the Harvard Observatory, who has lately been Director of the Harvard station in Arequipa, Peru.f I have just received a copy of the Boston Commonwealth of May 26, 1894, which contains a long account of a paper read by Mr. Lowell before the Boston Scientific Society on his new observatory and its plans for work. It is to be presumed that this abstract of Mr. Lowell's paper is authoritative; but as it is not signed by his name, he may not hold the views there expressed. I have quoted below a few paragraphs from this account (the italics are my own), because they seem to me to be very misleading and unfortunate; and all the more so because they are very well written, and in some respects quite true. They are likely • to be widely copied in other periodicals and widely read by many intelligent persons who are interested in the results of astronomical research, but who are not sufficiently instructed in the details of it to form independent judgments. It seems to be the first duty of those who are writing for such a public to be extremely cautious not to mislead; and especially to avoid over-statement. Conjectures should be carefully separated from acquired facts; and the merely possible should not be confused with the probable, still less with the absolutely certain. It
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