The Story of the Heavens |
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Page 4
... less importance , which was not quite so obvious , though still capable of being detected by the simplest observations , when combined with a philosophical habit of reflection . The very earliest observers of the stars can hardly fail ...
... less importance , which was not quite so obvious , though still capable of being detected by the simplest observations , when combined with a philosophical habit of reflection . The very earliest observers of the stars can hardly fail ...
Page 16
... less than thirty inches in diameter for the Rus- sian astronomers . Can refracting telescopes be con- structed of still greater dimensions ? The present limit to the size of the refractor chiefly lies in the material of the object ...
... less than thirty inches in diameter for the Rus- sian astronomers . Can refracting telescopes be con- structed of still greater dimensions ? The present limit to the size of the refractor chiefly lies in the material of the object ...
Page 35
... less duration , the spots on one part of the sun will disappear , while as frequently fresh spots will become visible in other places . The inference from these various facts is irresistible . It tells us that the visible surface of the ...
... less duration , the spots on one part of the sun will disappear , while as frequently fresh spots will become visible in other places . The inference from these various facts is irresistible . It tells us that the visible surface of the ...
Page 36
... less imperfect . It often happens that a large spot divides into two or more smaller spots , and these parts have been sometimes seen to fly apart , with a velocity in some cases not less than a thousand miles an hour . On rare ...
... less imperfect . It often happens that a large spot divides into two or more smaller spots , and these parts have been sometimes seen to fly apart , with a velocity in some cases not less than a thousand miles an hour . On rare ...
Page 40
... less . The magnitude of the changes could not be less than many thousands of miles , and the actual velocity with which such masses move is often not less than 100 miles a second . Still more violent are the solar convulsions which some ...
... less . The magnitude of the changes could not be less than many thousands of miles , and the actual velocity with which such masses move is often not less than 100 miles a second . Still more violent are the solar convulsions which some ...
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Common terms and phrases
61 Cygni actually appearance astronomers attraction axis beautiful bodies bright brilliant calculations celestial centre changes chapter circle comet compared constellation course crater diameter discovery distance double stars doubt earth ellipse equal fact globe gradually heat heavens Herschel instrument interest Jupiter Kepler known labours law of gravitation laws of Kepler length less light lunar magnitude Mars mass mathematician measure Mercury meteorites meteors mighty miles a second minor planets minute moon move movements nearly nebula Neptune night object observations Observatory once orbit Orion parallax pass path period phenomena planetary Pole Star position present proper motion question rays remarkable revolution revolve ring rotation round satellites Saturn seems seen shooting stars shower shown Sirius solar system spot stupendous sun's suppose surface tail telescope theory tides tion transit of Venus unaided eye Uranus vast velocity visible volcanoes weight
Popular passages
Page 80 - This truth within thy mind rehearse, That in a boundless universe Is boundless better, boundless worse. "Think you this mould of hopes and fears Could find no statelier than his peers In yonder hundred million spheres?" It spake, moreover, in my mind. "Tho' thou wert scatter'd to the wind, Yet is there plenty of the kind.
Page 237 - Saturn, perhaps, devoured his children ? Or were the appearances indeed illusion or fraud, with which the glasses have so long deceived me as well as many others to whom I have shown them ? Now, perhaps, is the time come to revive the well-nigh withered hopes of those who, guided by more profound contemplations, have discovered the fallacy of the new observations, and demonstrated the utter impossibility of the existence of those things which the telescope appears to show. I do not know what to say...
Page 412 - I congratulate you and myself that we have lived to see the great and hitherto impassable barrier to our excursions into the sidereal universe — that barrier against which we have chafed so long and so vainly (aestuantes angusto limite mundi) — almost simultaneously overleaped at three different points. It is the greatest and most glorious triumph which practical astronomy has ever witnessed.
Page 302 - Wherefore if according to what we have already said it should return again about the year 1758, candid posterity will not refuse to acknowledge that this was first discovered by an Englishman.
Page 287 - It has done more. It has given us the probable prospect of the discovery of another. 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 338 - There, for the next two or three hours, we witnessed a spectacle which can never fade from my memory. The shooting stars gradually increased in number until sometimes several were seen at once.
Page 495 - ... the sun ; so that, if we neglect the loss of heat by transmission through the glass, the temperature at the focus should be the same as that of a point placed at such a distance from the sun that the solar disc would seem just as large as the lens itself, viewed from its own focus.
Page 80 - Men can dwell on the earth, and oak-trees can thrive therein, because the constitutions of the man and of the oak are specially adapted to the particular circumstances of the earth. Could we obtain a closer view of some of the celestial bodies, we should probably find that they, too, teem with life, but with life specially adapted to the environment— life in forms strange and weird; life far stranger to us than Columbus found it to be in the New World when he first landed there. Life, it may be,...
Page 151 - ... lest any single observer should be deprived by the intervention of clouds of a sight which I know not whether any man living in this or the next age will ever see again, and on which depends the certain and adequate solution of a problem the most noble, and at any other time not to be attained to.
Page 237 - What is to be said concerning so strange a metamorphosis ? Are the two lesser stars consumed after the manner of the solar spots ? Have they vanished or suddenly fled ? Has Saturn, perhaps, devoured his own children?