Free eBooks - Science - Astronomy
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INTRODUCTION
We know, both by tradition and published records, that from the earliest times the faint grey and light spots which diversify the face of our satellite excited the wonder and stimulated the curiosity of mankind, giving rise to suppositions more or less crude and erroneous as to their actual nature and significance. It is true that Anaxagoras, five centuries before our era, and probably other ... more...
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A procession of the damned.
By the damned, I mean the excluded.
We shall have a procession of data that Science has excluded.
Battalions of the accursed, captained by pallid data that I have exhumed, will march. You'll read them—or they'll march. Some of them livid and some of them fiery and some of them rotten.
Some of them are corpses, skeletons, mummies, twitching, tottering, animated by ... more...
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Wallace, Alfred Russel
Wallace, Alfred Russel
British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist.
He is best known for independently proposing a theory of natural selection which prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own ...
He is best known for independently proposing a theory of natural selection which prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own ...
CHAPTER I.
EARLY OBSERVERS OF MARS.
Few persons except astronomers fully realise that of all the planets of the Solar system the only one whose solid surface has been seen with certainty is Mars; and, very fortunately, that is also the only one which is sufficiently near to us for the physical features of the surface to be determined with any accuracy, even if we could see it in the other planets. Of Venus ... more...
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CHAPTER I
THE EARTH
It is a curious fact that when we are used to things, we often do not notice them, and things which we do every day cease to attract our attention. We find an instance of this in the curious change that comes over objects the further they are removed from us. They grow smaller and smaller, so that at a distance a grown-up person looks no larger than a doll; and a short stick planted in ... more...
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ASTROLOGY.
Signs and planets, in aspects sextile, quartile, trine, conjoined, or opposite; houses of heaven, with their cusps, hours, and minutes; Almuten, Almochoden, Anahibazon, Catahibazon; a thousand terms of equal sound and significance.—Guy Mannering.
... Come and see! trust thine own eyes.A fearful sign stands in the house of life,An enemy: a fiend lurks close behindThe radiance of thy ... more...
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CHAPTER I.APPARENT ATTRIBUTES OF THE STARS.
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Our knowledge of the stars is based on their apparent attributes, obtained from the astronomical observations. The object of astronomy is to deduce herefrom the real or absolute attributes of the stars, which are their position in space, their movement, and their physical nature.
The apparent attributes of the stars are studied by the aid of their radiation. ... more...
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CHAPTER I.
THE ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY.
Early Astronomical Observations—The Observatory of Tycho Brahe—The Pupil of the Eye—Vision of Faint Objects—The Telescope—The Object-Glass—Advantages of Large Telescopes—The Equatorial—The Observatory—The Power of a Telescope—Reflecting Telescopes—Lord Rosse's Great Reflector at Parsonstown—How ... more...
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CHAPTER I.
A HALF-HOUR ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE TELESCOPE.
There are few instruments which yield more pleasure and instruction than the Telescope. Even a small telescope—only an inch and a half or two inches, perhaps, in aperture—will serve to supply profitable amusement to those who know how to apply its powers. I have often seen with pleasure the surprise with which the performance even of an ... more...
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THE DIAGRAMS.
The diagrams, it will be observed, are grouped under the seasons, and they indicate the positions of the constellations as they appear at 9 o'clock p.m. in mid-season.
To facilitate finding and observing the constellations, the student should face in the direction indicated in the text. This applies to all constellations excepting those near the zenith.
The four large plates are so arranged ... more...
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PREFACE
The object of this book is to give an account of the science of Astronomy, as it is known at the present day, in a manner acceptable to the general reader.
It is too often supposed that it is impossible to acquire any useful knowledge of Astronomy without much laborious study, and without adventuring into quite a new world of thought. The reasoning applied to the study of the celestial orbs is, ... more...
