Elements of Astronomy: Illustrated with Plates, for the Use of Schools and Academies, with Questions

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Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins, 1829 - Astronomy - 152 pages
 

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Page 29 - In the solitude of the seas, we hail a star as a friend from whom we have been long separated. Among the Portuguese and the Spaniards, peculiar motives seem to increase this feeling ; a religious sentiment attaches them to a constellation, the form of which recalls the sign of the faith planted by their ancestors in the deserts of the new world...
Page 29 - The two great stars which mark the summit and the foot of the Cross having nearly the same right ascension, (see No.
Page 28 - I was agitated by a fear unknown to those who love a sedentary life. It seemed painful to me to renounce the hope of beholding those beautiful constellations which border the southern pole. Impatient to rove in the equinoctial regions, I could not raise my eyes...
Page 112 - The most remote were about 9 or 10 miles distant from each other, in a line differing little from the course of the meteor. It is therefore probable, that the successive masses fell in this order, the most northerly first, and the most southerly last We think we are able to point out three principal places where stones have fallen, corresponding with the three loud cannon-like reports, and with the three leaps of the meteor, observed by Mr.
Page 112 - ... most northerly first, and the most southerly last. We think we are able to point out three principal places where stones have fallen, corresponding with the three loud cannon-like reports, and with the three leaps of the meteor observed by Mr. Staples. There were some circumstances common to all the cases. There was in...
Page 66 - When the sun and star are both together at °p , they are in the same meridian ; but when the star comes to 1, and the sun to a, they are not in the same meridian, but the sun is westward of the star's meridian ; consequently as the earth turns on its axis from west to east, any particular place will come under the sun's meridian sooner than under the star's meridian ; that is, it is noon by the sun before it is by the star or by a clock. (For were the sun where the star is, the sun would agree with...
Page 15 - ... below, seem to bid defiance to the laws of gravitation. Around the base of these frightful eminences, are strewed numerous loose and unconnected fragments, which time seems to have detached from their parent mass ; and when we examine the rents and ravines which accompany the over-hanging cliffs, we expect every moment that they are to be torn from their base, and that the process of destructive separation which we had only contemplated in its effects, is about to be exhibited before us in tremendous...

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