Astronomical Curiosities: Facts and Fallacies

Curious to say, Al-Sufi rated the Pole Star as 3rd magnitude; for it is now only slightly less than the 2nd. At present it is about the same brightness as [Greek: b] of the same...

The achievements of Hipparchus in astronomy were very remarkable, considering the age in which he lived. He found the amount of the apparent motion of the stars due to the prece...

"Great numbers of the nebulæ are therefore thousands of times the dimensions of the earth's orbit, and most of them are thousands of times the dimensions of the whole solar syst...

Pliny says that Hipparchus "ventured to count the stars, a work arduous even for the Deity." But this was quite a mistaken idea. Those visible to the naked eye are comparatively...

The grouping of the stars into constellations is of great antiquity. The exact date of their formation is not exactly known, but an approximate result may be arrived at from the...

In that interesting work _A Cycle of Celestial Objects_, Admiral Smyth says (p. 275), "Geminiano Montanari, as far back as 1670, was so struck with the celestial changes, that h...

We learn from Pliny that comets were classified in ancient times, according to their peculiar forms, into twelve classes, of which the principal were: _Pogonias_, bearded; _Lamp...

The earth being our place of abode is, of course, to us the most important planet in the solar system. It is a curious paradox that the moon's surface (at least the visible port...

Some researches on the distribution of stars in the sky have recently been made at the Harvard Observatory (U.S.A.). The principal results are:--(1) The number of stars on any "...

Venus was naturally--owing to its brightness--the first of the planets known to the ancients. It is mentioned by Hesiod, Homer, Virgil, Martial, and Pliny; and Isaiah's remark a...

The total area of the moon's surface is about equal to that of North and South America. The actual surface visible at any one time is about equal to North America.

Prof. R. G. Aitken, the eminent American observer of double stars, finds that of all the stars down to the 9th magnitude--about the faintest visible in a powerful binocular fiel...

Mars was called by the ancients "the vanishing star," owing to the long periods during which it is practically invisible from the earth.[98] It was also called [Greek: puroeis]...

Mr. Denning thinks that the meteor shower of the month of May, known as the Aquarids, is probably connected with Halley's comet. The meteors should be looked for after 1 a.m. du...

This brilliant planet--only inferior to Venus in brightness--was often seen by Bond (Jun.) with the naked eye in "high and clear sunshine"; also by Denning, who has very keen ey...

Some observations recently made by Prof. W. H. Pickering in Jamaica, make the value of sunlight 540,000 times that of moonlight. This makes the sun's "stellar magnitude" minus 2...

According to Gruson and Brugsch, the Zodiacal Light was known in ancient times, and was even worshipped by the Egyptians. Strabo does not mention it; but Diodorus Siculus seems...

As the elongation of Mercury from the sun seldom exceeds 18°, it is a difficult object, at least in this country, to see without a telescope. As the poet says, the planet--

To show the advantages of large telescopes over small ones, Mr. C. Roberts says that "with the 25-inch refractor of the Cambridge Observatory the view of the planet Saturn is in...

From observations of Uranus made in 1896, M. Leo Brenner concluded that the planet rotates on its axis in about 8-1/2 hours (probably 8{h} 27{m}). This is a short period, but co...

From an examination of the distribution of the first 512 of these small bodies, Dr. P. Stroobant finds that a decided maximum in number occurs between the limits of distance of...