The Observatory, Volume 8

Front Cover
Editors of the Observatory, 1885
"A review of astronomy" (varies).
 

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Page 295 - SCHELLEN'S SPECTRUM ANALYSIS, in its application to Terrestrial Substances and the Physical Constitution of the Heavenly Bodies. Translated by JANE and C. LASSELL; edited, with Notes, by W. HUGGINS, LL.D. FRS With 13 Plates (6 coloured) and 223 Woodcuts. 8vo. price 28s. CELESTIAL OBJECTS for COMMON TELESCOPES.
Page 153 - Six hypotheses have been suggested : — 1. That the corona consists of a gaseous atmosphere resting upon the sun's surface and carried round with it. 2. That the corona is made up, wholly or in part, of gaseous and finely divided matter which has been ejected from the sun, and is in motion about the sun from the forces of ejection, of the sun's rotation, and of gravity, — and possibly of a repulsion of some kind. 3.
Page 208 - Having brought the telescope to the parallel of Saturn, I discovered a sixth satellite of that planet ; and also saw the spots upon Saturn, better than I had ever seen them before, so that I may date the finishing of the 4O-feet telescope from that time.
Page 185 - ... as that in which the planets were formed. After having thus sketched M. Faye's theory in its main outlines, Professor Darwin points out that no reference is made to the possible effect of tides in the evolution of the solar system, a part of the subject which has been so ably worked out by Professor Darwin himself. He has shown that the hypothesis that tidal friction has had free play in the past leads to a remarkable quantitative co-ordination of the several elements of the earth's rotation...
Page 157 - ... rapidly lose heat; but, on the other hand, liquid or solid particles, whether originally carried up as such, or subsequently formed by condensation, would absorb the sun's heat, and at coronal distances would soon rise to a temperature not...
Page 279 - Saturn, and comparisons with lines in the spectnim of the moon, or of the sky, made in the course of each night's observations of star-motions, or on the following morning, as a check on the general accuracy of the results for star-motions. The observations of the last twelve months confirm the change in the motion of Sirius, which now appears to be approaching the sun at the rate of about 20 miles a second. As there is great difficulty in the use of a pointer or cross-wires for measuring both the...
Page 336 - ... In 1877, when discussing the phenomena of Nova Cygni, I advanced the view that meteoritic collisions were in all probability the cause of them. Almost, if not quite, the last view to which we have to refer is due to Mr. WHS Monck, who suggested in 1885 that new stars are dark (or faintly luminous) bodies which acquire a short-lived brilliancy by rushing through some of the gaseous masses which exist in space.
Page 52 - Most of these charts have been submitted to a careful scrutiny with the fifteen inch telescope of the Washburn Observatory. An important test of the completeness of the charts is thus afforded. In the following table three successive columns give the names of the twenty-four leading stars and their approximate right ascensions and declinations for 1880. The next two columns give the number of nights on which they were observed with the meridian photometer, and the resulting magnitude. The details...
Page 279 - January i the public clock and other mean solar clocks were put forward twelve hours so as to show Greenwich civil time starting at midnight, and reckoning from oh to 24h, which •would correspond with the Universal time recommended by the Washington Conference. The change from astronomical to civil reckoning has also been made in all the internal work of the Observatory, and has been carried out without any difficulty. Greenwich civil time is found to be more convenient on the whole for the purposes...
Page 157 - ... ejected to great heights above the photosphere, and often with velocities not far removed from that which would be needed to set it free from the sun's attraction, and very probably in the same electric state as the photosphere, might so come under this assumed electric repulsion as to be blown upwards, and to take on forms such as those seen in the corona ; the greatest distances to which the coronal streamers have been traced are small as compared with the extent of the tails of comets, but...

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