The Sun: Ruler, Fire, Light, and Life of the Planetary System |
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Page 182
... Sir William Herschel ob- served a spot similar in its general characteristics to that on the observation of which Wilson had based his hypothesis . There is a dark spot in the Sun on the following side . It is certainly depressed below ...
... Sir William Herschel ob- served a spot similar in its general characteristics to that on the observation of which Wilson had based his hypothesis . There is a dark spot in the Sun on the following side . It is certainly depressed below ...
Page 183
... Sir William Herschel's reasoning , that it is nearly always divided very definitely into two portions , which yet many who study his writings are apt to confound . We find certain con- clusions on which Sir William Herschel insists ...
... Sir William Herschel's reasoning , that it is nearly always divided very definitely into two portions , which yet many who study his writings are apt to confound . We find certain con- clusions on which Sir William Herschel insists ...
Page 186
... Sir William Herschel - who did not disdain at times to be as imaginative and fanciful in theorising as he was exact and scrupulous in observing - proceeds to consider the possibility that the inhabitants of the Moon and of the ...
... Sir William Herschel - who did not disdain at times to be as imaginative and fanciful in theorising as he was exact and scrupulous in observing - proceeds to consider the possibility that the inhabitants of the Moon and of the ...
Page 187
... Sir William Herschel records the results of further observations . He draws special at- tention to certain characteristic features of the Sun's surface . These are , first , corrugations , which he re- gards as elevations and ...
... Sir William Herschel records the results of further observations . He draws special at- tention to certain characteristic features of the Sun's surface . These are , first , corrugations , which he re- gards as elevations and ...
Page 188
... Sir William Herschel remarked that the Sun presented an appearance far more remarkable , and such , he re- marks , as differed wholly from what he had ever seen before . There was not a single opening in the whole disc ; there were no ...
... Sir William Herschel remarked that the Sun presented an appearance far more remarkable , and such , he re- marks , as differed wholly from what he had ever seen before . There was not a single opening in the whole disc ; there were no ...
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Common terms and phrases
angle aperture aphelion appearance astronomers battery of prisms body breadth bright lines centre chromosphere clouds coloured consider corona corresponding dark lines deduced determine diameter direction dispersion Earth eclipse effect error estimate fact faculæ Fraunhofer greater Halley's method heat Herschel Hipparchus hydrogen Kirchhoff length less limb luminous Mars mass matter mean distance measure method miles per second minute Moon Moon's motion noticed observations orbit pass path peculiarity penumbra perihelion phenomena photosphere planets polariscope portion present prism problem prominences proportion rays recognised red end regarded regions remarkable rendered researches respecting rotation Secchi seems seen Sir William Herschel slit sodium solar light solar parallax solar physics solar prominences solar spectrum solar spots spectra spectroscopic analysis star stations Sun can control Sun-spot Sun's disc Sun's distance Sun's surface supposed telescope terrestrial tion transit transits of Venus trum vapours velocity Venus violet end visible
Popular passages
Page 405 - 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 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 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 393 - 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 413 - ... melt in air, — the flux of power is eternally the same. It rolls in music through the ages, and all terrestrial energy, — the manifestations of life as well as the display of phenomena, are but the modulations of its rhythm.
Page 193 - Herschel,'wouldcome,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 412 - And still, notwithstanding this enormous drain in the lapse of human history, we are 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 analyse the space in which he is immersed, and which is the vehicle of his power.
Page 411 - 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 412 - To Nature nothing can be added ; from Nature nothing can be taken away ; the sum of her energies is constant, and the utmost man can do in the pursuit of physical truth, or in the...
Page 204 - It was impossible, on first witnessing an appearance so similar to a sudden conflagration, not to expect a considerable result in the way of alteration of the details of the group in which it occurred; and I was certainly surprised, on referring to the sketch which I had carefully and satisfactorily (and I may add fortunately) finished before the occurrence, at finding myself unable to recognize any change whatever as having taken place.