Astronomy of To-day: A Popular Introduction in Non-Technical Language

In attempting this, we find that our theories must of necessity be limited to the earth, or at most to the solar system. The time-honoured expression "End of the World" really a...

We have already seen (in Chapter I.) how, in very early times, men naturally enough considered the earth to be a flat plane extending to a very great distance in every direction...

What we call the moon's "phases" are merely the various ways in which we see the sun shining upon her surface during the course of her monthly revolutions around the earth (see...

Since some members of the solar system are nearer to us than others, and all are again much nearer than any of the stars, it must often happen that one celestial body will pass...

Having, in a previous chapter, noted the various aspects which an inferior planet presents to our view, in consequence of its orbit being nearer to the sun than the orbit of the...

Many stars are seen comparatively close together. This may plainly arise from two reasons. Firstly, the stars may happen to be almost in the same line of sight; that is to say,...

The planets, so far, have been divided into inferior and superior. Such a division, however, refers merely to the situation of their orbits with regard to that of our earth. The...

" II. Wit & Imagination of Disraeli. " III. Vignettes from Oliver Goldsmith. " IV. Wit & Sagacity of Dr. Johnson. " V. Insight & Imagination of John Ruskin. " VI. Vignettes of L...

What is thought to be the earliest reference to an eclipse comes down to us from the ancient Chinese records, and is over four thousand years old. The eclipse in question was a...

The earliest astronomical observations must have been made in the Dawn of Historic Time by the men who tended their flocks upon the great plains. As they watched the clear night...

The stars appear to us to be scattered about the sky without any orderly arrangement. Further, they are of varying degrees of brightness; some being extremely brilliant, whilst...

The reader has, no doubt, been struck by the marked uniformity which exists among those members of the solar system with which we have dealt up to the present. The sun, the plan...

Any one who happens to gaze at the sky for a short time on a clear night is pretty certain to be rewarded with a view of what is popularly known as a "shooting star." Such an ob...

The photosphere, or "light-sphere," from the Greek [phos] (_phos_), which means _light_, is, as we have already said, the innermost portion of the sun which can be seen. Examine...

Starting from the centre of the solar system, the first body we meet with is the planet Mercury. It circulates at an average distance from the sun of about thirty-six millions o...

The stars appear fairly evenly distributed all around us, except in one portion of the sky where they seem very crowded, and so give one an impression of being very distant. Thi...

We have seen, in the course of the last chapter, that the solar system is composed as follows:--there is a central body, the sun, around which revolve along stated paths a numbe...

In the foregoing chapters we have dealt at length with those celestial bodies whose nearness to us brings them into our especial notice. The entire room, however, taken up by th...

In the course of our inquiry we noted in a rough way the _relative_ distances at which the various planets move around the sun. But we have not yet stated what these distances _...

Dwelling upon the fact that all the motions of revolution and rotation in the solar system, as known in his day, took place in the same direction and nearly in the same plane, t...

It is still well under four hundred years since the modern, or Copernican, theory of the universe supplanted the Ptolemaic, which had held sway during so many centuries. In this...

As soon as we begin to inquire closely into the actual condition of the various members of the solar system we are struck with a certain distinction. We find that there are two...

If eclipses were a cause of terror in past ages, comets appear to have been doubly so. Their much longer continuance in the sight of men had no doubt something to say to this, a...

The sun is the chief member of our system. It controls the motions of the planets by its immense gravitative power. Besides this it is the most important body in the entire univ...

Prior to the year 1610, when Galileo first turned the new instrument upon the sky, all that men knew of the starry realms was gathered from observation with their own eyes unaid...

If white light (that of the sun, for instance) be passed through a glass prism, namely, a piece of glass of triangular shape, it will issue from it in rainbow-tinted colours. It...

It is very interesting to consider the proper motions of stars with reference to such an isolated stellar system as has been pictured in the previous chapter. These proper motio...

The earliest lunar eclipse, of which we have any trustworthy information, was a total one which took place on the 19th March, 721 B.C., and was observed from Babylon. For our kn...

For instance, the idea which one would most naturally form of the earth and heaven is that the solid earth on which we live and move extends to a great distance in every directi...

VII. FORMS OF THE SOLAR CORONA AT THE EPOCHS OF SUNSPOT MAXIMUM AND SUNSPOT MINIMUM RESPECTIVELY. (A) THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN OF DECEMBER 22, 1870. (B) THE TOTAL ECLIPSE OF...