Family Concerns

Six hundred years ago, the number of stars visible to you without a telescope would have been about 2400 at any one time. So through most of history, the true number of stars could not have been estimated.

With the invention of the first telescope the number of stars increased to approximately 28123. But, even then was reallyjust the beginning.

Even with one of the best telescopes on earth (like one at the Robinson Observatory in Orlando, Florida (USA)), you can’t get a real idea of how many stars are out there. The air limits what you can see.

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Today’s Definition

Columba (the dove, abbreviated Col) is a small constellation in the Southern Hemisphere. This constellation pictures a dove holding an olive branch in its mouth. Columba is a member of the “Heavenly Waters,” a constellation family. Columba was named by the astronomer Bayer, but was populatized by the French astronomer Augustin Royer in 1679 (before that, Colmba’s stars have been included in the constellation Canis Major). Alpha Col (the brightest star in Columba) is called Phaet; beta Col (the second-brightest star in Columba) is called Wezn. The globular cluster NGC 1851 and the blue magnitude 5 star (mu Col, a “runaway star”) are in Columba.

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The light from cities , also further reduces the ability to see the stars. That is why most observatories are usually away from cities. But even that limits our vision.

The incredible number of galaxies that were known increased by leaps and bounds with the first telescopes in space. Without air and light pollution scientists finally got a true hint of the real number of stars in the sky.

In fact, Carl Sagan estimated that there were 100 billion galaxies in the universe. If you can understand that there are about 31463 stars in your average diet, you are just beginning to get an understanding of how many stars that were considered to exist then.

These quotes will give you an idea of how the number of estimated galaxies has increased:

“Our telescopes can see many billion of them within reach of modern instruments.” - Morrison, David, Sidney Wolff & Andrew Fraknoi. Exploration of the Universe, 7th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1995: 7.

“The latest estimates have ranged anywhere from ten billion to one hundred billion galaxies.” - The Rebirth of Cosmology. New York: Knopf, 1976: 187.

“The Hubble Space Telescope has found there may be 125 billion galaxies in the universe.” - Galaxy Estimate Up To 125 Billion. Far News. Far Shores. citation of South China Morning Post. 9 January 1999.

Now in fact, a german supercomputer estimates that there are probably 500 billion galaxies. If we take the number 40,000 stars per galaxy, that would make 2 X 10 ^ 16 stars.

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