The Observatory, Band 7Editors of the Observatory, 1884 |
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
aperture appeared April Astronomer Royal Astronomical Society axis belt bright Cape catalogue colour comet comparison corona dark determination diameter disk distance double stars eclipse Ephemeris equator equatoreal errors faculæ faint Father Perry Geminorum Gill Greenwich Greenwich Mean heliometer Herschel inches instrument July June Jupiter Knobel light limb longitude lunar Lyræ magnitude maximum mean solar measures meridian meteors micrometer minimum Minor Planet Monocerotis Moon Moon's Neptune object object-glass observations Observatory obtained occultations orbit paper parallax period photographs photometric planet position position-angles present Prof Professor proper motions Ranyard red spot remarkable right ascensions ring rotation Royal Observatory Sagittarii satellite Saturn seen Sept sidereal spectroscope spectrum stellar sun-spots Sun's surface tables telescope theory tion transit Transit of Venus Trouvelot Tupman Uranometria Uranus Variable Stars veiled spots Venus Virginis visible ΙΟ
Beliebte Passagen
Seite 314 - Its satellite system also deserves careful observation, especially in respect to the eclipses which occur; since we find in them a measure of the time required for light to cross the orbit of the earth, and so of the solar parallax, and also because, as has been already mentioned, they furnish a test of the constancy of the earth's rotation. The photometric method of observing these eclipses, first instituted by Professor Pickering at Cambridge in 1878, and since re-invented by Cornu in Paris, has...
Seite 364 - ... any thing higher; but it is not the whole or the best or the most of life. Apart from all spiritual and religious considerations, which lie one side of our relations in this association, there can be no need, before this audience, to plead the higher rank of the intellectual, aesthetic, and moral life above the material, or to argue that the pabulum of the mind is worth as much as food for the body. Now, it is unquestionable, that, in the investigation and discovery of the secrets and mysteries...
Seite 273 - I certainly had that impression myself not long ago, and was a little startled on being told by the superintendent of our Nautical almanac that the remaining uncertainty was still sufficient to produce serious embarrassment in the reduction and comparison of certain lunar observations. The length of the line joining, say, the Naval observatory at Washington with the Royal observatory at the Cape of Good Hope, is doubtful; not to the extent of only a few hundred feet, as commonly supposed, but the...
Seite 198 - There is no change of importance to notice in this instrument, which has been kept in good working order. A reversion-prism for use with the collimators as well as with the transit-circle is being made by Messrs. Troughton and Simms. The sun, moon, planets, and fundamental stars have been regularly observed throughout the year, together with other stars from a working catalogue of 2600 stars, comprising all stars down to the sixth magnitude inclusive which have not been observed since 1860. Considerable...
Seite 364 - No other scientific facts and conceptions are more effective in producing a modest, sober, truthful, and ennobling estimate of man's just place in nature, both of his puny insignificance, regarded as a physical object, and his towering spirit, in some sense comprehending the universe itself, and so akin to the divine. A nation oppressed by poverty, and near to starving, needs first, most certainly, the trades and occupations that will feed and clothe it. When bodily comfort has been achieved, then...
Seite 314 - It seems quite certain that no analogies drawn from the earth and the earth's atmosphere alone will explain the strange things seen upon his disk, some of which, especially the anomalous differences observed between the rotation periods derived from the observation of markings in different latitudes, are very similar to what we find upon the sun. 'The great red spot...
Seite 279 - ... be preserved for future comparison as unimpeachable witnesses. I will not leave the moon without a word in respect to the remarkable speculations of Professor George Darwin concerning the tidal evolution of our satellite. Without necessarily admitting all the numerical results as to her age and her past and future history, one may certainly say that he has given a most plausible and satisfactory explanation of the manner in which the present state of things might have come about through the operation...
Seite 361 - Newton, and others, who consider them to be strangers coming in from outer space, sometimes ' captured ' by planets, and forced into elliptic orbits, so as to become periodic in their motion. Certainly this theory has strong supports and great authority, and probably it meets the conditions better than any other yet proposed. But the objections are really great, if not insuperable, — the fact that we have so few, if any, comets moving in hyperbolic orbits, as comets met by the sun would be expected...
Seite 314 - I mean merely to insinuate a modest doubt whether some of the map-makers have not gone into a little more elaborate detail than the circumstances warrant. At any rate, while the 'areographies' agree very well with each other in respect to the planet's more important features, they differ widely and irreconcilably in minor points. As regards the physical features of the asteroids, we at present know practically nothing: the field is absolutely open. Whether it is worth any thing may be a question;...
Seite 344 - For sale by all Booksellers. Sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of price by the Publishers, HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., BOSTON, MASS. I...