Popular Astronomy: A Series of Lectures |
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Page 91
... Precession of the Equinoxes ( of which more will be said hereafter ) ; and even this does not affect its inclination to the plane of the ecliptic . Having got through this part of my subject , I will now proceed to speak of the apparent ...
... Precession of the Equinoxes ( of which more will be said hereafter ) ; and even this does not affect its inclination to the plane of the ecliptic . Having got through this part of my subject , I will now proceed to speak of the apparent ...
Page 160
... if I have given you a few notions of it I shall be perfectly satisfied . I shall make some further remarks on this subject in the next lecture . LECTURE V. Recapitulation of Lecture IV . - Precession of 160 POPULAR ASTRONOMY .
... if I have given you a few notions of it I shall be perfectly satisfied . I shall make some further remarks on this subject in the next lecture . LECTURE V. Recapitulation of Lecture IV . - Precession of 160 POPULAR ASTRONOMY .
Page 161
... Precession of the Equinoxes.- Lunar Nutation . - Aberration of Light . - Measure of the Distances of the Stars . IN N last evening's lecture I treated more especially of the measures of the distance of the moon and the sun from the ...
... Precession of the Equinoxes.- Lunar Nutation . - Aberration of Light . - Measure of the Distances of the Stars . IN N last evening's lecture I treated more especially of the measures of the distance of the moon and the sun from the ...
Page 175
... Precession of the Equi- noxes . This is a thing which was known as a fact of observation to the ancients . The person who dis- covered it was the Greek Astronomer Hipparchus , a hundred and fifty years before the Christian era . It was ...
... Precession of the Equi- noxes . This is a thing which was known as a fact of observation to the ancients . The person who dis- covered it was the Greek Astronomer Hipparchus , a hundred and fifty years before the Christian era . It was ...
Page 181
... Precession of the Equi- noxes . It is to be observed , that the principal part of pre- cession is not produced by the sun , but by the moon . The moon's mass is not a twenty - millionth part of the sun's ; but she is four hundred times ...
... Precession of the Equi- noxes . It is to be observed , that the principal part of pre- cession is not produced by the sun , but by the moon . The moon's mass is not a twenty - millionth part of the sun's ; but she is four hundred times ...
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Common terms and phrases
aberration of light accurate angle angular distance apparent motion appear ascertain astronomers ball body bright star calculation Cape Cavendish experiment celestial clock computed curve described diameter direction disturbed earth earth's axis earth's centre earth's equator ecliptic effect ellipse equatoreal exactly explain Figure 43 fluid globe Greenwich heavens horizon hour inclination Jupiter lecture length lunar precession Mars mean density method millions of miles moon mountain move Mural Circle nearly North Pole nutation object observations Observatory orbit parallax passes the meridian path pendulum perpendicular planets plumb-line point of Aries Polar Star position precession produced proportion pull refraction remark revolve rotation round the sun satellites Saturn seen sidereal day solar South Pole spheroid square sun's attraction sun's distance suppose supposition surface tance telescope theory of gravitation thing tion transit instrument transit of Venus triangle velocity vertical vibrations whole yard measure Zenith Sector
Popular passages
Page 229 - Every particle of matter attracts every other particle of matter with a stress which is proportional to the product of their masses, and inversely as the square of the distance between them.
Page 126 - The squares of the times of revolution of any two planets are to each other, in the same proportion as the cubes of their mean distances from the sun.
Page 128 - With the latter supposition (in which the distances are in the same proportion as in the former) we should find that Venus will appear to go just as much to the right or to the left of the sun as with the former. And therefore when we find that the apparent motions, computed on the supposition that the distances of the earth and Venus from the sun are respectively one hundred and seventy-two millions of miles, do agree with those which are really observed, we cannot tell whether the real distances...
Page ix - This worh consists of six lectures, which are intended " to explain to intelligent persons the principles on which the instruments of an Observatory are constructed (omitting all details, so far as they are merely subsidiary), and the principles on which the observations made with these instruments are treated for deduction of the distances and weights of the bodies of the Solar System, and of a fftv stars, omitliitt' all minntice of Elementary Class-Books — continued. formulce, and all troublesome...
Page 260 - Dr. Reich ; and finally, in a very much more complete way, by Mr. Francis Baily, as the active member of a committee of the Astronomical Society of London, to whom funds were supplied by the British Government. It is an experiment of a different kind ; a sort of domestic experiment ; one of those experiments which can be made in your own observing rooms at home, and which are, in many respects, preferable to those made on the hill sides of Scotland. The shape in which the apparatus is represented...
Page 287 - ... a mine be found, the ratio of the force of gravity at the top to that at the bottom may be calculated, and thence the ratio of the mean density of the earth to that of its surface.
Page 13 - ... is certain. Having now come to that result, as one which is generally established, I shall just mention a slight departure from it. Perhaps you may be surprised to hear me say the rule is established as true, and yet there is a departure from it. This is the way we go on in science, as in everything else...
Page 286 - Electricity is usually developed, in order to show its effects, by the friction of glass. The earlier electricians, in the prosecution of their researches, merely used glass tubes or other nonconductors, held in one hand and...
Page 187 - Now the sun attracts the moon, and disturbs it as he would the path of the mountain we have just supposed, and the effect is the same — viz., the intersections of the moon's orbit with the ecliptic travel backward, completing a revolution in about 18 years. During half of this time the moon's orbit is inclined to the ecliptic in the same way as the earth's equator ; during the other half it is inclined in the opposite way. In the former state, the moon's attractive tendency to tilt the earth is...
Page 114 - ... manner as I can what parallax is. There is an experiment pleasing and profitable, and which I have made in my youth, and which I have no doubt most of you have made in your time. It is this : if you place your head in...