The Planet Earth: An Astronomical Introduction to Geography |
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Common terms and phrases
Aldebaran Algol altitude Andromeda angle angular distance apparent motion apparent path appears to travel astronomers attraction Betelgeuse bright star Cassiopeia celestial equator celestial pole celestial sphere centre circle circumference completely round constellation Copernican theory Copernicus degrees Denebola diameter direction distance round diurnal motion due south earth east eastern horizon ecliptic ellipse equal fact fixed Foucault's pendulum globe Heaven Heaven Heaven hence inferior planets journey Jupiter known lamp latitude lead ball length light loops luminary Mars mass measure meridian miles minutes movement moving round night noonday north and south north celestial pole object observed opposite orbit Orion pass pendulum planet moves polar compression Pole-Star position precession Procyon Ptolemy Regulus revolution revolve round rising and setting round the sun Saturn seen side spinning spring equinox stationary point summer solstice sun's suppose surface telescope travel round triangle twilight visible zodiac
Popular passages
Page 5 - I could pray to move, prayers would move me: But I am constant as the northern star, Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament.
Page 59 - And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night ; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days,
Page 41 - That very law* which moulds a tear, And bids it trickle from its source, That law preserves the earth a sphere, And guides the planets in their course.
Page 63 - The Ram, the Bull, the heavenly Twins, And next the Crab the Lion shines, The Virgin and the Scales ; The Scorpion, Archer, and He-goat, The Man that holds the watering-pot, And Fish with glittering tails.
Page 62 - Astronomy has corrected this delusion of human vanity : and man now reluctantly confesses that the stars are worlds, larger and more glorious than his own, — that the earth on which he crawls is a scarce visible speck on the vast chart of creation.
Page 61 - Thro' cells of madness, haunts of horror and fear, That I come to be grateful at last for a little thing : My mood is changed, for it fell at a time of year When the face of night is fair on the dewy downs, And the shining daffodil dies, and the Charioteer And starry Gemini hang like glorious crowns Over Orion's grave low down in the west...
Page 104 - Every particle in the universe attracts every other particle with a force which is directly proportional to the product of the masses of the particles and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
Page 105 - The squares of the periods of the planets are proportional to the cubes of their mean distances from the sun ; that is, ti2 : k2 ,• ,• ai3 ,• (h3This is the so-called harmonic law.
Page 62 - Man is arrogant in proportion to his ignorance. Man's natural tendency is to egotism. Man, in his infancy of knowledge, thinks that all creation was formed for him. For several ages he saw in the countless worlds that sparkle through space like the bubbles of a shoreless ocean only the petty candles, the household torches, that Providence had been pleased to light for no other purpose but to make the night more agreeable to man.
Page 56 - The specific gravity is the ratio of the weight of a substance to the weight of an equal volume of water.