Star Depths

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 24, 1873

The mind of man utterly fails to realize the immensity of space, and no one unaccustomed to the use of the telescope can have an adequate idea of the difference presented by the heavens when viewed by the naked eye, even upon a clear night, and the scene which is disclosed to the eye and mind of the astronomer. How difficult it is to realize that each star in the solemn depths of the universe is a sun like our own sun, but separated from each other and our own by distances almost beyond the power of man to compute.

Only about three thousand stars can be distinctly seen and counted by the naked eye, while an ordinary telescope reveals the presence of something like three hundred and fifty thousand. Herschel's great eighteen-inch instrument, it is estimated, shows one hundred and eighty millions, while the great Rosse telescope, by its vast penetrating power, is supposed to open up to our vision not less than seven hundred millions. And yet, when the whole heavens are swept by this telescope, we have only penetrated a distance into space from our stand-point on this globe which, when compared to the immensity beyond, is no more than the space occupied by the room where we write or read is to the immensity of depth penetrated by the last-mentioned instrument.—Sel.