Steinheil (Journal savant de Munich, Feb. 28, 1843) describes
a “heliomètre-oculaire” which he made for the great Pulkowa
refractor, the result of consultations between himself and the elder
Struve. It is essentially the same in principle as Amici’s micrometer,
except that the divided lens is an achromatic positive instead
of a negative lens. Struve (Description de l’Observatoire Central de
Pulkowa, pp. 196, 197) adds a few remarks to Steinheil’s description,
in which he states that the images have not all desirable precision—a
fault perhaps inevitable in all micrometers with divided lenses,
and which is probably in this case aggravated by the fact that the
rays falling upon the divided lens have considerable convergence.
He, however, successfully employed the instrument in measuring
double stars, so close as 1″ or 2″, and using a power of 300 diameters,
with results that agreed satisfactorily amongst themselves and with
those obtained with the filar micrometer. If Struve had employed
a properly proportioned double circular diaphragm, fixed symmetrically
with the axis of the telescope in front of the divided lens and
turning with the micrometer, it is probable that his report on the
instrument would have been still more favourable. This particular
instrument has historical interest, having led Struve to some of those
criticisms of the Pulkowa heliometer which ultimately bore such
valuable fruit (see ante).
Ramsden (Phil. Trans. vol. xix. p. 419) suggested the division of the small speculum of a Cassegrain telescope and the production of double image by micrometric rotation of the semispecula in the plane passing through their axis. Brewster (Ency. Brit. 8th ed. vol. xiv. p. 749) proposed a plan on a like principle, by dividing the plane mirror of a Newtonian telescope. Again, in an ocular heliometer by Steinheil double image is similarly produced by a divided prism of total reflection placed in parallel rays. But practically these last three methods are failures. In the last the field is full of false light, and it is not possible to give sufficiently minute and steady separation to the images; and there are of necessity a collimator, two prisms of total reflection, and a small telescope through which the rays must pass; consequently there is great loss of light.
Micrometers Depending on Double Refraction.—To the Abbé Rochon (Jour. de phys. liii., 1801, pp. 169–198) is due the happy idea of applying the two images formed by double refraction to the construction of a micrometer. He fell upon a most ingenious plan of doubling the amount of double refraction of a prism by using two prisms of rock-crystal, so cut out of the solid as to give each the same quantity of double refraction, and yet to double the quantity in the effect produced. The combination so formed is known as Rochon’s prism. Such a prism he placed between the object-glass and eye-piece of a telescope. The separation of the images increases as the prism is approached to the object-glass, and diminishes as it is approached towards the eye-piece.
D. F. J. Arago (Comptes rendus, xxiv., 1847, pp. 400-402) found that in Rochon’s micrometer, when the prism was approached close to the eye-piece for the measurement of very small angles, the smallest imperfections in the crystal or its surfaces were inconveniently magnified. He therefore selected for any particular measurement such a Rochon prism as when fixed between the eye and the eye-piece (i.e. where a sunshade is usually placed) would, combined with the normal eye-piece employed, bring the images about to be measured nearly in contact. He then altered the magnifying power by sliding the field lens of the eye-piece (which was fitted with a slipping tube for the purpose) along the eye-tube, till the images were brought into contact. By a scale attached to the sliding tube the magnifying power of the eye-piece was deduced, and this combined with the angle of the prism employed gave the angle measured. If p″ is the refracting angle of the prism, and n the magnifying power of the eye-piece, then p″/n will be the distance observed. Arago made many measures of the diameters of the planets with such a micrometer.
 |
| Fig. 18.Fig. 19. |
Dollond (Phil. Trans., 1821, pp. 101–103) describes a double-image micrometer of his own invention, in which a sphere of rock-crystal is substituted for the eye-lens of an ordinary eye-piece. In this instrument (figs. 18, 19) a is the sphere, placed in half-holes on the axis bb, so that when its principal axis is parallel to the axis of the telescope it gives only one image of the object. In a direction perpendicular to that axis it must be so placed that when it is moved by rotation of the axis bb the separation of the images shall be parallel to that motion. The angle of rotation is measured on the graduated circle C. The angle between the objects measured is = r sin 2θ, where r is a constant to be determined for each magnifying power employed,[1] and θ the angle through which the sphere has been turned from zero (i.e. from coincidence of its principal axis with that of the telescope). The maximum separation is consequently at 45° from zero. The measures can be made on both sides of zero for eliminating index error. There are considerable difficulties of construction, but these have been successfully overcome by Dollond; and in the hands of Dawes (Mem. R.A.S. xxxv. p. 144 seq.) such instruments have done valuable service. They are liable to the objection that their employment is limited to the measurement of very small angles, viz. 13″ or 14″ when the magnifying power is 100, and varying inversely as the power. Yet the beautiful images which these micrometers give permit the measurement of very difficult objects as a check on measures with the parallel-wire micrometer.
On the theory of the heliometer and its use consult Bessel, Astronomische Untersuchungen, vol. i.; Hansen, Ausführliche Methode mit dem Fraunhoferschen Heliometer anzustellen (Gotha, 1827); Chauvenet, Spherical and Practical Astronomy, vol. ii. (Philadelphia and London, 1876); Seeliger, Theorie des Heliometers (Leipzig, 1877); Lindsay and Gill, Dunecht Publications, vol. ii. (Dunecht, for private circulation, 1877); Gill, Mem. R.A.S. vol. xlvi. pp. 1-172, and references mentioned in the text. (D. Gi.)
HELIOPOLIS, one of the most ancient cities of Egypt, met
with in the Bible under its native name On. It stood 5 m. E.
of the Nile at the apex of the Delta. It was the principal seat
of sun-worship, and in historic times its importance was entirely
religious. There appear to have been two forms of the sun-god
at Heliopolis in the New Kingdom—namely, Ra-Harakht, or
Rē;‛-Harmakhis, falcon-headed, and Etōm, human-headed;
the former was the sun in his mid-day strength, the latter the
evening sun. A sacred bull was worshipped here under the name
Mnevis (Eg. Mreu), and was especially connected with Etōm.
The sun-god Rē‛ (see Egypt: Religion) was especially the royal
god, the ancestor of all the Pharaohs, who therefore held the
temple of Heliopolis in great honour. Each dynasty might
give the first place to the god of its residence—Ptah of Memphis,
Ammon of Thebes, Neith of Sais, Bubastis of Bubastis, but all
alike honoured Rē‛. His temple became in a special degree a
depository for royal records, and Herodotus states that the
priests of Heliopolis were the best informed in matters of history
of all the Egyptians. The schools of philosophy and astronomy
are said to have been frequented by Plato and other Greek
philosophers; Strabo, however, found them deserted, and the
town itself almost uninhabited, although priests were still there,
and cicerones for the curious traveller. The Ptolemies probably
took little interest in their “father” Rē‛, and Alexandria had
eclipsed the learning of Heliopolis; thus with the withdrawal
of royal favour Heliopolis quickly dwindled, and the students
of native lore deserted it for other temples supported by a
wealthy population of pious citizens. In Roman times obelisks
were taken from its temples to adorn the northern cities of the
Delta, and even across the Mediterranean to Rome. Finally
the growth of Fostat and Cairo, only 6 m. to the S.W., caused
the ruins to be ransacked for building materials. The site was
known to the Arabs as ‛Ayin esh shems, “the fountain of the
sun,” more recently as Tel Hisn. It has now been brought for
the most part under cultivation, but the ancient city walls of
crude brick are to be seen in the fields on all sides, and the position
of the great temple is marked by an obelisk still standing (the
earliest known, being one of a pair set up by Senwosri I., the
second king of the Twelfth Dynasty) and a few granite blocks
bearing the name of Rameses II.
See Strabo xvii. cap. 1. 27-28; Baedeker’s Egypt. (F. Ll. G.)
HELIOSTAT (from Gr. ἥλιος, the sun, στατός, fixed, set up), an instrument which will reflect the rays of the sun in a fixed direction notwithstanding the motion of the sun. The optical apparatus generally consists of a mirror mounted on an axis parallel to the axis of the earth, and rotated with the same angular velocity as the sun. This construction assumes that the sun describes daily a small circle about the pole of the celestial sphere, and ignores any diurnal variation in the declination. This variation is, however, so small that it can be neglected for most purposes.
- ↑ Dollond provides for changing the power by sliding the lens d nearer to or farther from a.
