万物简史 第45期:埃文斯牧师的宇宙(9)

 　　So when a hopeful and softspoken minister got in touch to ask if they had any usable field charts for hunting supernovae, the astronomical¹ community thought he was out of his mind. At the time Evans had a ten-inch telescope—a very respectable size for amateur stargazing but hardly the sort of thing with which to do serious cosmology—and he was proposing to find one of the universe's rarer phenomena².

　　因此，要是有一位满怀希望、说话细声细气的牧师前来联系，问一声他们有没有可用的星场地图，以便寻找超新星，天文学界一定会认为他的脑子出了毛病。当时，埃文斯只有一台5厘米的天文望远镜--这供业余观星之用倒差不多，但用那玩意儿来搞严肃的宇宙研究还远远不够--他却提出要寻找宇宙里比较稀罕的现象。

　　In the whole of astronomical history before Evans started looking in 1980, fewer than sixty supernovae had been found. (At the time I visited him, in August of 2001, he had just recorded his thirty-fourth visual discovery; a thirty-fifth followed three months later and a thirty-sixth in early 2003.)埃文斯于1980年开始观察，在此之前，整个天文学史上发现的超新星还不到60颗。（到我2001年8月拜访他的时候，他已经记录了他的第34次目视发现；3个月以后，他有了第35次发现；2003年初，第36次。）Evans, however, had certain advantages. Most observers, like most people generally, are in the northern hemisphere, so he had a lot of sky largely to himself, especially at first. He also had speed and his uncanny memory. Large telescopes are cumbersome³ things, and much of their operational time is consumed with being maneuvered⁴ into position. Evans could swing his little sixteen-inch telescope around like a tail gunner in a dogfight, spending no more than a couple of seconds on any particular point in the sky. In consequence, he could observe perhaps four hundred galaxies⁵ in an evening while a large professional telescope would be lucky to do fifty or sixty.

　　然而，埃文斯有着某些优势。大部分观察者像大部分人口一样身处北半球，因此身处南半球的他在很大程度上独自拥有一大片天空，尤其是在最初的时候。他还拥有速度和超人的记忆力。大型天文望远镜是很笨重的东西，移动到位要花掉好多操作时间。埃文斯可以像近距离空战中的机尾射手那样把5厘米小型望远镜转来转去，用几秒钟时间就可以瞄准天空中任何一个特定的点。因此，他一个晚上也许可以观测400个星系，而一台大型专业天文望远镜能观测五六十个就很不错了。

 

1 astronomical   

adj.天文学的，（数字）极大的

参考例句：

• He was an expert on ancient Chinese astronomical literature.他是研究中国古代天文学文献的专家。
• Houses in the village are selling for astronomical prices.乡村的房价正在飙升。

2 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。

3 cumbersome   

adj.笨重的，不便携带的

参考例句：

• Although the machine looks cumbersome,it is actually easy to use.尽管这台机器看上去很笨重，操作起来却很容易。
• The furniture is too cumbersome to move.家具太笨，搬起来很不方便。

4 maneuvered   

v.移动，用策略( maneuver的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵

参考例句：

• I maneuvered my way among the tables to the back corner of the place. 我在那些桌子间穿行，来到那地方后面的角落。 来自辞典例句
• The admiral maneuvered his ships in the battle plan. 舰队司令按作战计划进行舰队演习。 来自辞典例句

5 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。