The Observatory, Volume 28Editors of the Observatory, 1905 - Astronomy "A review of astronomy" (varies). |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
A. C. D. CROMMELIN appearance April Astrographic Astronomer Royal August bright British Astronomical Association Catalogue centre comet corona Cowell Cygni d h d h d h dark determination diameter distance disturbances Dyson E. T. WHITTAKER Earth equator error Greenwich Hinks instrument interesting January July June Jupiter latitude Lick Observatory light Lockyer longitude lunar magnetic storms magnitude March Maunder mean measures Meeting meridian meteor meteorological miles MINOR PLANET month Moon Moon's nebula observations orbit paper parallax period photographs planet plates present President probably Prof prominences proper motions reference remarkable rotation rotation-period Royal Astronomical Society Royal Observatory satellite seems seen Sept solar eclipse South spectroscope spectrum spot sun-spots Sun's taken Tauri telescope temperature theory Turner Variable Stars Venus visible XXVIII
Popular passages
Page 366 - The first or planetary species has a circular equator like the earth; the second species has an oval equator, so that it is something like an egg spinning on Its side on a table; in the third species we find that one of the two ends of the egg begins to swell, and that the swelling gradually becomes a well-marked protrusion or filament. Finally the filamentous protrusion becomes bulbous at its end, and is only joined to the main mass of liquid by a gradually thinning neck. The neck at length breaks,...
Page 156 - Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger, Comes dancing from the east, and leads with her The flowery May, who from her green lap throws The yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose. Hail, bounteous May, that dost inspire Mirth, and youth, and warm desire ; Woods and groves are of thy dressing, Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing. Thus we salute thee with our early song, And welcome thee, and wish thee long.
Page 407 - Operative, have a great connexion between themselves ; yet because all true and fruitful Natural Philosophy hath a double scale or ladder, ascendent and descendent; ascending from experiments to the invention of causes and descending from causes to the invention of new experiments; therefore I judge it most requisite that these two parts be severally considered and handled.
Page 406 - 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 339 - ... slight waviness in the path described, it is stable. We thus arrive at another distinction : there are perpetual orbits, but some, and indeed most, are unstable, and these do not offer an immortal career for a meteoric stone ; and there are other perpetual orbits which are stable or persistent. The unstable ones are those which succumb in the struggle for life, and the stable ones are the species adapted to their environment. If, then, we are given a system of a sun and large planet, together...
Page 369 - And now, at length, relief has come to the strained relations between the two parties, for the recent marvellous discoveries in physics show that concentration of matter is not the only source from which the sun may draw its heat. Radium is a substance which is perhaps millions of times more powerful than dynamite. Thus it is estimated that an ounce of radium would contain enough power to raise 10,000 tons a mile above the earth's surface. Another way of stating the same estimate is this : the energy...
Page 9 - ECLIPSES. In the year 1883 there will be two Eclipses of the Sun, and two of the Moon.
Page 349 - Every 2 days 2 1 hours Algol drops more than a magnitude, and does this with a regularity which would be unfailing were it not for the fact that at one season of the year we are nearer the star by nearly the whole diameter of the Earth's orbit than we are at the opposite season ; and light takes about 16 minutes to traverse that distance.
Page 182 - And I waited with much anxiety for Mr. Adams's answer to my query. Had it been in the affirmative, I should at once have exerted all the influence which I might possess, either directly, or indirectly through my friend Professor Challis, to procure the publication of Mr. Adams's theory. * From some cause with which I am unacquainted, probably an accidental one, I received no immediate answer to this inquiry. I regret this deeply, for many reasons.
Page 63 - ... theory of Optics in the sense that the elastic solid theory was accepted fifty years ago. We have abandoned that theory, and learned that the undulations of light are electromagnetic waves differing only in linear dimensions from the disturbances which are generated by oscillating electric currents or moving magnets. But so long as the character of the displacements which constitute the waves remains undefined we cannot pretend to have established a theory of light.