The Sun: Ruler, Fire, Light, and Life of the Planetary System |
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Page iii
... regions there Breathe forth Elixir pure , and rivers run Potable gold , when with one virtuous touch Th ' arch - chemic Sun , so far from us remote , Produces , with terrestrial humour mix'd , Here in the dark so many precious things ...
... regions there Breathe forth Elixir pure , and rivers run Potable gold , when with one virtuous touch Th ' arch - chemic Sun , so far from us remote , Produces , with terrestrial humour mix'd , Here in the dark so many precious things ...
Page xix
... region in the Southern to another in the Northern heavens . Dissimilar helicoidal paths of the planets Has the Sun companion - suns in his voyage through space ? Groups of companion suns Conclusion APPENDIX A. APPROACHING TRANSITS OF ...
... region in the Southern to another in the Northern heavens . Dissimilar helicoidal paths of the planets Has the Sun companion - suns in his voyage through space ? Groups of companion suns Conclusion APPENDIX A. APPROACHING TRANSITS OF ...
Page 33
... regions where bad weather ordinarily prevails . And this question of the weather is in itself a great difficulty . For transits of Venus can only occur in December or in June , as is obvious from a consideration of fig . 10 , where E ...
... regions where bad weather ordinarily prevails . And this question of the weather is in itself a great difficulty . For transits of Venus can only occur in December or in June , as is obvious from a consideration of fig . 10 , where E ...
Page 70
... regions where his influence is subordinate to the influence of some other orb . * It is sometimes said that a body like a comet can pass from the sway of one star to come permanently under the dominion of our Sun or of another star ...
... regions where his influence is subordinate to the influence of some other orb . * It is sometimes said that a body like a comet can pass from the sway of one star to come permanently under the dominion of our Sun or of another star ...
Page 81
... regions along which the outer planets pursue their career , all the higher forms of life would have vanished from her surface . She would still rotate ; day and night would still succeed each other on her surface ; but the orderly ...
... regions along which the outer planets pursue their career , all the higher forms of life would have vanished from her surface . She would still rotate ; day and night would still succeed each other on her surface ; but the orderly ...
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Common terms and phrases
actual angle aperture aphelion appear astronomers battery of prisms bearing body bright lines centre chromosphere coloured consider corona corresponding dark lines deduced determining the Sun's diameter difficulty direction dispersion Earth Earth's orbit eclipse effect error estimate exact fact favourable Fraunhofer greater Halley's method heat Herschel Hipparchus inferior conjunction Kirchhoff length less limb limits luminous Mars mass matter mean distance measure meteors miles per second minute Moon Moon's motion node noticed observations orbit pass path peculiarity perihelion phenomena photosphere planets polariscopic portion present problem prominences proportion rays recognised red end regarded researches respecting rotation Secchi seen shown sidereal slit sodium solar light solar parallax solar prominences solar spectrum space spectra spectroscopic analysis spots stars stations Sun can control Sun-spot Sun's disc Sun's distance Sun's surface supposed telescope terrestrial tion transit transits of Venus vapours velocity Venus Venus's violet end visible zodiacal light
Popular passages
Page 401 - I have seen the wild stone-avalanches of the Alps, which smoke and thunder down the declivities with a vehemence almost sufficient to stun the observer. I have also seen snow-flakes descending so softly as not to hurt the fragile spangles of which they were composed ; yet to produce from aqueous vapour a quantity, which a child could carry, of that tender material, demands an exertion of energy competent to gather up the shattered blocks of the largest stone-avalanche I have ever seen, and pitch...
Page 117 - I obtained a tolerably bright solar spectrum, and brought a flame coloured by sodium vapour in front of the slit. I then saw the dark lines D change into bright ones.
Page 389 - The sun's rays are the ultimate source of almost every motion which takes place on the surface of the earth. By its heat are produced all winds, and those disturbances in the electric equilibrium of the atmosphere which give rise to the phenomena of lightning, and probably also to those of terrestrial magnetism and the aurora.
Page 193 - Herschel,' would come, on this view of the subject, to be assimilated to those regions on the Earth's surface in which, for the moment, hurricanes and tornadoes prevail — the upper stratum being temporarily carried downwards, displacing by its impetus the two strata of luminous matter beneath...
Page 409 - ... melt in air, — the flux of power is eternally the same. It rolls in music through the age^s, and all terrestrial energy, — the manifestations of life as well as the display of phenomena, are but the modulations of its rhythm.
Page 407 - Still, presented rightly to the mind, the discoveries and generalisations of modern science constitute a poem more sublime than has ever yet been addressed to the imagination. The natural philosopher of to-day may dwell amid conceptions which beggar those of Milton.
Page 408 - ... unable to detect a diminution of his store ; measured by our largest terrestrial standards, such a reservoir of power is infinite ; but it is our privilege to rise above these standards and to regard the sun himself as a speck in infinite extension — a mere drop in the universal sea. We analyze the space in which he is immersed, and which is the vehicle of his power.
Page 205 - By degrees, accounts began to pour in of great Auroras seen on the nights of those days ; not only in these latitudes, but at Rome ; in the West Indies ; on the tropics within 18° of the equator (where they hardly ever appear), nay, what is still more striking, in South America and in Australia ; where, at Melbourne, on the night of the 2d of September the greatest Aurora ever seen there made its appearance.
Page 183 - Hence he concludes that the sun has a very extensive atmosphere, which consists of elastic fluids that are more or less lucid and transparent ; and of which the lucid ones furnish us with light. This atmosphere, he...
Page 321 - The corona was far broader than that which I saw in 1842; roughly speaking, its breadth was little less than the moon's diameter ; but its outline was very irregular. I did not remark any beams projecting from it which deserved notice as much more conspicuous than the others ; but the whole was beamy, radiated in structure, and terminated (though very indefinitely) in a way which reminded me of the ornament frequently placed round a mariner's compass. Its colour was white...