A New Manual of the Elements of Astronomy: Descriptive and Mathematical ... |
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altitude angle aphelion aphelion distance apparent diameter appearance astronomers atmosphere axis body bright calculated called caused celestial centre circle clusters comet constant day constellations density diagram disc discovered discovery double stars earth earth's orbit earth's surface east eccentricity ecliptic equal equator equinoctial equinox extreme elongation heavens hemisphere hence horizon inclination inferior conjunction inferior planet Jupiter Kepler's latitude latter light and heat longitude luminous lunar magnitude Mars mass mean distance Mercury meridian meteors millions of miles minor planets moon moon's move nearly nebulæ Neptune node oblateness oblique observed occur opposite orbit parallax pass perihelion perihelion distance phenomena pole position Ptolemy QUESTIONS.-b ratio retrograde revolution revolve right ascension rings rotation satellites Saturn seen sidereal period Sir William Herschel situated solar system solstice sphere spots sun's superior conjunction superior planets supposed synodic period telescope tides tion transit Uranus velocity Venus visible zodiac
Popular passages
Page 14 - A sphere is a solid, bounded by one continued convex surface, every point of which is equally distant from a point within, called the centre.
Page 34 - If you forgive me, I rejoice ; if you are angry, I can bear it : the die is cast, the book is written ; to be read either now or by posterity, I care not which : it may well wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer.
Page 70 - Hence the latitude of a heavenly body is its distance from the ecliptic, measured on a secondary to the ecliptic ; and like latitude on the earth, it can never exceed ninety degrees.
Page 223 - Towards the morning of the 13th of November, 1799, we witnessed a most extraordinary scene of shooting meteors. Thousands of bodies and falling stars succeeded each other during four hours. Their direction was very regular from north to south. From the beginning of the phenomenon there was not a space in the firmament equal in extent to three diameters of the moon which was not filled every instant with bodies or falling stars. All the meteors left luminous traces or phosphorescent bands behind them,...
Page 33 - I was sure of my discovery ; what, sixteen years ago, I urged as a thing to be sought; that for which I joined Tycho Brahe, for which I settled in Prague, for which I have devoted the best part of my life to astronomical contemplations ; — at length I have brought to light, and have recognised its truth beyond my most sanguine expectations.
Page 82 - ... the inclination of the axis of the earth to the plane of the ecliptic, and partly to the different positions in which a spectator is placed in different zones of the globe.
Page 69 - Aries the Ram, Taurus the Bull, Gemini the Twins, Cancer the Crab, Leo the Lion, Virgo the Virgin, Libra the Balance, Scorpio the Scorpion, Sagittarius the Archer, Capricornus the Goat, Aquarius the Waterbearer, and Pisces the Fishes...
Page 218 - Lepaute was such, that, without her, we never could have dared to undertake this enormous labor, in which it was necessary to calculate the distance of each of the two planets, Jupiter and Saturn, from the comet, and their attraction upon that body, separately, for every successive degree, and for one hundred and fifty years.
Page 201 - seems above all to confirm the idea of an intimate relation between all the minor planets; it is, that, if their orbits are figured under the form of material rings, these rings will be found so entangled, that it would be possible, by means of one among them taken at hazard, to lift up all the rest.