The solar system, a descriptive treatise. (Readings in popular lit.).

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Page 128 - Nachrichten ; but the increase in later years is more rapid than the observations appear to give it : the second hypothesis, however, still having the advantage. I am at present employed in discussing the errors in latitude, with the view of obtaining an approximate value of the inclination and position of the node of the new planet's orbit ; but the perturbations in latitude are so very small that I am afraid the result will not have great weight. According to a rough calculation made some time...
Page 72 - ... eclipse of the moon, which took place March 1, 1504, to relieve his fleet, which was in great distress from want of supplies. As a punishment to the islanders of Jamaica^ who refused to assist him, he threatened to deprive them of the light of the moon. At first they were indifferent to his threats, but " when the eclipse actually commenced, the barbarians vied with each other in the production of the necessary supplies for the Spanish fleet.
Page 22 - Venus is a morning star from inferior to superior conjunction, and an evening star from superior to inferior conjunction. Her greatest elongation from the Sun, in longitude, is about 47" 15', hence she is never observable more than from three to four hours after sun-set or before sun-rise.
Page 89 - Asteroids) appears to separate the planets of small mass from the greater bodies of the system, the planets which rotate on their axes in about the same time as the earth, from those which are whirled round in less than half that interval, though of ten times the diameter of our...
Page 26 - Fort Prince of Wales on the north-west coast of Hudson's Bay, St. Joseph, and Santa Anna in California. The ingress of the planet was seen at almost all the observatories of Europe ; the egress at Petersburg, Yakutsk, Manilla, Batavia, Pékin, Gurief, Orska, and Orenburg. The value of the parallax was variously deduced, different astronomers preferring different values, from 8''' 5 to8'''8: Laplace used 8"- 66; M. Encke deduced 8" -5776 from all the observations.
Page 33 - AD, the perigee coincided with the winter solstice ; the spring quarter was therefore equal to the summer one, and the autumn quarter to the winter one, the former being the longest.
Page 70 - Moon visible when entirely immersed in the earth's shadow. — When the moon is totally immersed in the earth's shadow, she does not, except on some rare occasions, become invisible, but assumes a dull reddish hue, somewhat of the color of tarnished copper. This arises from the refraction of the sun's rays in passing through the earth's atmosphere, as explained in the preceding Article.
Page 11 - ... at some considerably lower level within its depth) a cloudy stratum, which, being strongly illuminated from above, reflects a considerable portion of the light to our eyes, and forms a penumbra, while the solid body shaded by clouds, reflects none.
Page 125 - ... are due to the action of a planet situated in the ecliptic at a mean distance double that of Uranus.
Page 42 - Moon, deduced from recent observations, with that indicated by the Chaldean observations of eclipses at Babylon in the years 719 and 720 before the Christian era...

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