The Heavens: An Illustrated Handbook of Popular AstronomyR. Bentley, 1867 - 524 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
appear Arago Argo Navis astronomers atmosphere axis Boötes brightness brilliant Cassiopea celestial bodies celestial vault centre clouds cluster colour comets constellation craters dark density diameter dimensions disk double stars Earth equator equatorial equinox extreme fact globe heat heavens hemisphere Herschel horizon hypothesis immense instruments Jupiter Lastly length less light Lord Rosse luminous points lunar Mädler magnitude Mars mass mean distance measure Mercury meridian meteors miles Milky Moon movement of rotation naked eye nearly nebula Neptune night nucleus observed orbit Orion penumbra period phases phenomena photosphere physical constitution planet planetary Plate pole portion position present rays regions remarkable revolution ring round the Sun satellites Saturn seen sidereal sidereal day solar days solar system solstices sometimes southern space sphere spots starry vault Sun's surface telescope terrestrial total eclipse traverse Uranus variable variable stars varies velocity Venus visible whilst Zodiacal Light zone
Popular passages
Page 265 - We see it as Columbus saw America from the shores of Spain. Its movements have been felt, trembling along the far-reaching line of our analysis, with a certainty hardly inferior to that of ocular demonstration.
Page 41 - ... observed and described ; and also to put on record some results of a pretty constant scrutiny of solar phenomena with powerful and excellent telescopes during the last twelve or fifteen years. The mottled appearance of the solar surface requires no very large amount of optical power to render it visible. I have often observed it with a good refractor of only 2^ inches aperture and a power of 60.
Page 160 - ... and streaks of the lunar surface, are not improbably due to former glacial action. Notwithstanding the excellent definition of modern telescopes, it could not be expected that other than the most gigantic of the characteristic details of an ancient glacier bed would be rendered visible. What then may we expect to see ? Under favourable circumstances the terminal moraine of a glacier attains enormous dimensions ; and, consequently, of all the marks of a glacial valley this would be the one most...
Page 196 - ... the most remote condition, of which we have positive evidence, was that of small, detached, melted globules, the formation of which cannot be explained in a satisfactory manner, except by supposing that their constituents were originally in the state of vapour, as they now exist in the atmosphere of the Sun ; and, on the temperature becoming lower, condensed into these
Page 496 - Cooke, of 3|-inches aperture, a fact speaking volumes for the perfection of surface and polish attained by our modern opticians. Observations should always be commenced with the lowest power, gradually increasing it until the limit of the aperture, or of the atmospheric condition at the time, is reached : the former being taken as equal to the number of hundredths of inches which the diameter of the object-glass contains. Thus, a 3|-inch object-glass, if really good, should bear a power of 375 on...
Page 106 - ... through which they pass, and if so, the proportion of heat received at Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn, may be the same as that received at the Earth, if the constituents of their atmospheres be the same as that of the Earth, and greater if the density be greater, so that the effective solar heat at Jupiter and Saturn may be greater than at either the inferior planets Mercury or Venus, notwithstanding their far greater distances from the Sun. ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. JUM 5, 1865. M. FIZEAU presented...
Page 159 - ... of controversy. In conclusion, this hypothesis suggests the probability that the other bodies belonging to our solar system have either already passed through a similar epoch, or are destined still to encounter it. With the exception of the polar ice of Mars we have hitherto obtained no certain glimpse into the thermal or meteorological condition of the planets : neither is the physical state of their surfaces accessible to our best telescopes. It is otherwise however with the moon, whose distance...
Page 160 - Ehone glacier. These ridges are visible for the whole period during which that portion of the moon's surface is illuminated ; but it is only about the third day after the first quarter, and at the corresponding phase of the waning moon, when the sun's rays, falling nearly horizontally, throw the details...
Page 474 - Instruction should proceed from the known to the unknown, from the simple to the complex, from concrete to abstract notions, from analysis to synthesis.
Page 58 - These are the general grounds on which we suspect the sun to be the agent which causes magnetic disturbances ; but there is also some reason to believe that on one occasion our luminary was caught in the very act. On the 1st of September, 1859, two astronomers, Messrs. Carrington and Hodgson, were independently observing the sun's disc, which exhibited at that time a very...