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

Cecil Goodrich Julius Dolmage

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Astronomy of To-day, by Cecil G. DolmageThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and withalmost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away orre-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License includedwith this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.netTitle: Astronomy of To-dayA Popular Introduction in Non-Technical LanguageAuthor: Cecil G. DolmageRelease Date: April 21, 2009 [EBook #28570]Language: English*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTRONOMY OF TO-DAY ***Produced by Brenda Lewis, Scott Marusak, Greg Bergquistand the Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from imagesgenerously made available by The Internet Archive/AmericanLibraries.)Transcriber’s NoteThe punctuation and spelling from the original text have been faithfully preserved. Only obvious typographicalerrors have been corrected. The advertisement from the beginning of the book has been joined with the otheradvertisements near the end of the book.A S T R O N O M Y O F T O - D A YThe Total Eclipse of the Sun of August 30th, 1905. The Total Eclipse ofthe Sun of August 30th, 1905.The Corona; from a water-colour sketch, made at Burgos, in Spain,during the total phase, by the French Artist, Mdlle. Andrée Moch.A S T R O N O M Y O FT O - D A YA P O P U L A R I N T R O D U C T I O N I NN O N - T E C H N I C A L L A N G U A G EByCECIL G. DOLMAGE, M.A., LL.D., D.C.L.Fellow ...

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• Publié par: esse
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 22
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Astronomy of To-
day, by Cecil G. Dolmage
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no
cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,
give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg
License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Astronomy of To-day
A Popular Introduction in Non-Technical Language
Author: Cecil G. Dolmage
Release Date: April 21, 2009 [EBook #28570]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
ASTRONOMY OF TO-DAY ***
Produced by Brenda Lewis, Scott Marusak, Greg
Bergquist
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced fromhttp://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
images
generously made available by The Internet
Archive/American
Libraries.)
Transcriber’s Note
The punctuation and spelling from the original text
have been faithfully preserved. Only obvious
typographical errors have been corrected. The
advertisement from the beginning of the book has
been joined with the other advertisements near the
end of the book.
ASTRONOMY OF TO-DAY
The Total Eclipse of the Sun of August 30th, 1905.
The Total Eclipse of the Sun of August 30th, 1905.
The Corona; from a water-colour sketch, made at
Burgos, in Spain, during the total phase, by the French
Artist, Mdlle. Andrée Moch.ASTRONOMY OF
TO-DAY
A POPULAR INTRODUCTION IN
NON-TECHNICAL LANGUAGE
By
CECIL G. DOLMAGE, M.A., LL.D., D.C.L.
Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society; Member of
the British Astronomical Association; Member of
the Astronomical Society of the Pacific; Membre
de la Société Astronomique de France;
Membre de la Société Belge
d'Astronomie
With a Frontispiece in Colour
and 45 Illustrations & Diagrams
THIRD EDITION
LONDON
SEELEY AND CO. LIMITED
38 Great Russell Street1910
PREFACE
The object of this book is to give an account of the
science of Astronomy, as it is known at the present
day, in a manner acceptable to the general reader.
It is too often supposed that it is impossible to acquire
any useful knowledge of Astronomy without much
laborious study, and without adventuring into quite a
new world of thought. The reasoning applied to the
study of the celestial orbs is, however, of no different
order from that which is employed in the affairs of
everyday life. The science of mathematics is perhaps
responsible for the idea that some kind of difference
does exist; but mathematical processes are, in effect,
no more than ordinary logic in concentrated form, the
shorthand of reasoning, so to speak. I have attempted
in the following pages to take the main facts and
theories of Astronomy out of those mathematical
forms which repel the general reader, and to present
them in the ordinary language of our workaday world.
The few diagrams introduced are altogether
supplementary, and are not connected with the text by
any wearying cross-references. Each diagram is
complete in itself, being intended to serve as a
pictorial aid, in case the wording of the text should not
have perfectly conveyed the desired meaning. The full
page illustrations are also described as adequately as
possible at the foot of each.As to the coloured frontispiece, this must be placed in
a category by itself. It is the work of the artist as
distinct from the scientist.
The book itself contains incidentally a good deal of
matter concerned with the Astronomy of the past, the
introduction of which has been found necessary in
order to make clearer the Astronomy of our time.
It would be quite impossible for me to enumerate here
the many sources from which information has been
drawn. But I acknowledge my especial indebtedness
to Professor F.R. Moulton's Introduction to Astronomy
(Macmillan, 1906), to the works on Eclipses of the late
Rev. S.J. Johnson and of Mr. W.T. Lynn, and to the
excellent Journals of the British Astronomical
Association. Further, for those grand questions
concerned with the Stellar Universe at large, I owe a
very deep debt to the writings of the famous American
astronomer, Professor Simon Newcomb, and of our
own countryman, Mr. John Ellard Gore; to the latter of
whom I am under an additional obligation for much
valuable information privately rendered.
In my search for suitable illustrations, I have been
greatly aided by the kindly advice of Mr. W. H.
Wesley, the Assistant Secretary of the Royal
Astronomical Society. To those who have been so
good as to permit me to reproduce pictures and
photographs, I desire to record my best thanks as
follows:—To the French Artist, Mdlle. Andrée Moch; to
the Astronomer Royal; to Sir David Gill, K.C.B., LL.D.,
F.R.S.; to the Council of the Royal Astronomical
Society; to Professor E.B. Frost, Director of theYerkes Observatory; to M.P. Puiseux, of the Paris
Observatory; to Dr. Max Wolf, of Heidelberg; to
Professor Percival Lowell; to the Rev. Theodore E.R.
Phillips, M.A., F.R.A.S.; to Mr. W.H. Wesley; to the
Warner and Swasey Co., of Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.;
to the publishers of Knowledge, and to Messrs.
Sampson, Low & Co. For permission to reproduce the
beautiful photograph of the Spiral Nebula in Canes
Venatici (Plate XXII.), I am indebted to the
distinguished astronomer, the late Dr. W.E. Wilson,
D.Sc., F.R.S., whose untimely death, I regret to state,
occurred in the early part of this year.
Finally, my best thanks are due to Mr. John Ellard
Gore, F.R.A.S., M.R.I.A., to Mr. W.H. Wesley, and to
Mr. John Butler Burke, M.A., of Cambridge, for their
kindness in reading the proof-sheets.
CECIL G. DOLMAGE.
London, S.W.,
August 4, 1908.
PREFATORY NOTE TO THE
SECOND EDITION
The author of this book lived only long enough to hear
of the favour with which it had been received, and to
make a few corrections in view of the second edition
which it has so soon reached.
December 1908.CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
The Ancient View 17
CHAPTER II
The Modern View 20
CHAPTER III
The Solar System 29
CHAPTER IV
Celestial Mechanism 38
CHAPTER V
Celestial Distances 46
CHAPTER VI
Celestial Measurement 55
CHAPTER VII
Eclipses and Kindred Phenom
61
ena
CHAPTER VIII
Famous Eclipses of the Sun 83
CHAPTER IX
10
Famous Eclipses of the Moon
1
CHAPTER X
10
The Growth of Observation
5CHAPTER XI
12
Spectrum Analysis
1
CHAPTER XII
12
The Sun
7
CHAPTER XIII
13
The Sun—continued
4
CHAPTER XIV
14
The Inferior Planets
6
CHAPTER XV
15
The Earth
8
CHAPTER XVI
18
The Moon
3
CHAPTER XVII
20
The Superior Planets
9
CHAPTER XVIII
The Superior Planets—contin 22
ued 9
CHAPTER XIX
24
Comets
7
CHAPTER XX25
Remarkable Comets
9
CHAPTER XXI
26
Meteors Or Shooting Stars
6
CHAPTER XXII
27
The Stars
8
CHAPTER XXIII
28
The Stars—continued
7
CHAPTER XXIV
30
Systems of Stars
0
CHAPTER XXV
31
The Stellar Universe
9
CHAPTER XXVI
The Stellar Universe—continu 32
ed 9
CHAPTER XXVII
33
The Beginning of Things
3
CHAPTER XXVIII
34
The End of Things
2
35
Index
1