The Story of the Heavens

The vast Size of the Sun--Hotter than Melting Platinum--Is the Sun the Source of Heat for the Earth?--The Sun is 92,900,000 miles distant--How to realise the magnitude of this d...

Small Bodies of our System--Their Numbers--How they are Observed--The Shooting Star--The Theory of Heat--A Great Shooting Star--The November Meteors--Their Ancient History--The...

The Moon and the Tides--The Use of the Moon in Navigation--The Changes of the Moon--The Moon and the Poets--Whence the Light of the Moon?--Sizes of the Earth and the Moon--Weigh...

Comets contrasted with Planets in Nature as well as in their Movements--Coggia's Comet--Periodic Returns--The Law of Gravitation--Parabolic and Elliptic Orbits--Theory in Advanc...

minutes. The period of rotation of Mars himself is 24 hours 37 minutes, and hence we have the fact, unparalleled in the solar system, that the satellite is actually revolving th...

The Position of Saturn in the System--Saturn one of the Three most Interesting Objects in the Heavens--Compared with Jupiter--Saturn to the Unaided Eye--Statistics relating to t...

Gravitation--The Falling of a Stone to the Ground--All Bodies fall equally, Sixteen Feet in a Second--Is this true at Great Heights?--Fall of a Body at a Height of a Quarter of...

Interest attaching to this Planet--The Unexpectedness of its Appearance--The Evening Star--Visibility in Daylight--Lighted only by the Sun--The Phases of Venus--Why the Crescent...

Mathematical Astronomy--Lagrange's Theories: how far they are really True--The Solar System not Made of Rigid Bodies--Kepler's Laws True to Observation, but not Absolutely True...

Discovery of Neptune--A Mathematical Achievement--The Sun's Attraction--All Bodies attract--Jupiter and Saturn--The Planetary Perturbations--Three Bodies--Nature has simplified...

The Great Size of Jupiter--Comparison of his Diameter with that of the Earth--Dimensions of the Planet and his Orbit--His Rotation--Comparison of his Weight and Bulk with that o...

Sounding-line for Space--The Labours of Bessel--Meaning of Annual Parallax--Minuteness of the Parallactic Ellipse Illustrated--The Case of 61 Cygni--Different Comparison Stars u...

Our nearer Neighbours in the Heavens--Surface of Mars can be Examined in the Telescope--Remarkable Orbit of Mars--Resemblance of Mars to a Star--Meaning of Opposition--The Eccen...

Heat and Astronomy--Distribution of Heat--The Presence of Heat in the Earth--Heat in other Celestial Bodies--Varieties of Temperature--The Law of Cooling--The Heat of the Sun--C...

The Earth is a great Globe--How the Size of the Earth is Measured--The Base Line--The Latitude found by the Elevation of the Pole--A Degree of the Meridian--The Earth not a Sphe...

Contrast between Uranus and the other great Planets--William Herschel--His Birth and Parentage--Herschel's Arrival in England--His Love of Learning--Commencement of his Astronom...

The Lesser Members of our System--Bode's Law--The Vacant Region in the Planetary System--The Research--The Discovery of Piazzi--Was the small Body a Planet?--The Planet becomes...

Star Spectroscopes--Classification of Stellar Spectra--Type I., with very Few Absorption Lines--Type II., like the Sun--Type III., with Strongly Marked Dark Bands--Distribution...

Interesting Sidereal Objects--Stars not Scattered uniformly--Star Clusters--Their Varieties--The Cluster in Perseus--The Globular Cluster in Hercules--The Milky Way--A Cluster o...

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--...

Exceptional Importance of the Sun and Moon--The Course to be pursued--The Order of Distance--The Neighbouring Orbs--How are they to be discriminated?--The Planets Venus and Jupi...

The Ancient Astronomical Discoveries--How Mercury was first found--Not easily seen--Mercury was known from the earliest ages--Skill necessary in the Discovery--The Distinction o...

The Pole is not a Fixed Point--Its Effect on the Apparent Places of the Stars--The Illustration of the Peg-Top--The Disturbing Force which acts on the Earth--Attraction of the S...

The Real and Apparent Movements of the Stars--How they can be Discriminated--Aberration produces Effects dependent on the Position of the Stars--The Pole of the Ecliptic--Aberra...

The Constellations--The Great Bear and the Pointers--The Pole Star--Cassiopeia--Andromeda, Pegasus, and Perseus--The Pleiades: Auriga, Capella, Aldebaran--Taurus, Orion, Sirius;...

Sirius Contrasted with the Sun--Stars can be Weighed, but not in general Measured--The Companion of Sirius--Determination of the Weights of Sirius and his Companion--Dark Stars-...

Interesting Stellar Objects--Stars Optically Double--The Great Discovery of the Binary Stars made by Herschel--The Binary Stars describe Elliptic Paths--Why is this so important...

Outline of the Subject--Is Mercury the Planet nearest the Sun?--Transit of an Interior Planet across the Sun--Has a Transit of Vulcan ever been seen?--Visibility of Planets duri...