USE OF ASTRONOMY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 16 July 1929, Page 10

USE OF ASTRONOMY

THE DETERMINATION OF TIME NAVIGATION AND THE TID.ES The vast contribution thai the science of astronomy hail made to the sum of human knowledge was emphasised by Professor P. W. Buvbidge in an illustrated lecture on "What is the Use of . Astronomy f at a meeting of the Auckland Astronomical Society. The lecturer said that the first great use of astronomy was the determination of time. However, the older method of time calculations by the Government observatories was gradually being supplanted by broadcast signals from a large observatory. For instance, the Government observatory in Wellington received advice from the stations in Honolulu and Germany. The exact time was then sent on to ships, post offices and so on. In the immediate future wireless would completely oust astronomy in the determination of time, save for central observatories. Standard clocks would complete the attack, and one of the main traditional uses of astronomy would vanish. The prediction of tides was another use. As long as man survived lie would need a knowledge of the tides. Until the motions of the earth, moon and sun were known : to a nicety—a supposition , that was very distant—observations would always be required. Another use was navigation. Ancient navigation was accomplished with, the aid of astronomy—the sun by day and the moon and the stars by night. Accurate astronomical knowledge existed

among the Maoris; the voyage of Kupo from Rarotonga to New Zealand testified to that. Without man's knowledge of this science we would not be here in Auckland, while Captain Cook could not have undertaken his history-making journey to observe the transit of Venus. Indications were that directional wireless would bo employed more generally in the future, but the astronomer had paved the way for navigation. A less obvious but very important use was the extension of knowledge, the old time astronomers being actuated purely by motives of research.