The Story of the Heavens — Robert Stawell Ball
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.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : The Story of the Heavens Author : Robert S. Ball Release date : December 1, 2008 [eBook #27378] Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27378 Credits : Produced by K. Nordquist, Brenda Lewis, Stephen Hope, Greg Bergquist and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) *** START OF Only obvious typographical errors have been corrected. THE STORY OF THE HEAVENS PLATE I. THE PLANET SATURN, IN 1872. THE Story of the Heavens SIR ROBERT STAWELL BALL, LL.D. D.Sc. Author of " Star-Land " FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, HONORARY FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, FELLOW OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, SCIENTIFIC ADVISER TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF IRISH LIGHTS, LOWNDEAN PROFESSOR OF ASTRONOMY AND GEOMETRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, AND FORMERLY ROYAL ASTRONOMER OF IRELAND WITH TWENTY-FOUR COLOURED PLATES AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS NEW AND REVISED EDITION CASSELL and COMPANY, Limited LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE 1900 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PREFACE TO ORIGINAL EDITION. I have to acknowledge the kind aid which I have received in the preparation of this book. Mr. Nasmyth has permitted me to use some of the beautiful drawings of the Moon, which have appeared in the well-known work published by him in conjunction with Mr. Carpenter. To this source I am indebted for Plates VII., VIII., IX., X., and Figs. 28, 29, 30. Professor Pickering has allowed me to copy some of the drawings made at Harvard College Observatory by Mr. Trouvelot, and I have availed myself of his kindness for Plates I., IV., XII., XV. I am indebted to Professor Langley for Plate II., to Mr. De la Rue for Plates III. and XIV., to Mr. T.E. Key for Plate XVII., to Professor Schiaparelli for Plate XVIII., to the late Professor C. Piazzi Smyth for Fig. 100, to Mr. Chambers for Fig. 7, which has been borrowed from his "Handbook of Descriptive Astronomy," to Dr. Stoney for Fig. 78, and to Dr. Copeland and Dr. Dreyer for Fig. 72. I have to acknowledge the valuable assistance derived from Professor Newcomb's "Popular Astronomy," and Professor Young's "Sun." In revising the volume I have had the kind aid of the Rev. Maxwell Close. I have also to thank Dr. Copeland and Mr. Steele for their kindness in reading through the entire proofs; while I have also occasionally availed myself of the help of Mr. Cathcart. ROBERT S. BALL. Observatory, Dunsink, Co. Dublin. 12th May, 1886. NOTE TO THIS EDITION. I have taken the opportunity in the present edition to revise the work in accordance with the recent progress of astronomy. I am indebted to the Royal Astronomical Society for the permission to reproduce some photographs from their published series, and to Mr. Henry F. Griffiths, for beautiful drawings of Jupiter, from which Plate XI. was prepared. ROBERT S. BALL. Cambridge , 1st May, 1900 . CONTENTS. page Introduction 1 chapter I. The Astronomical Observatory 9 II. The Sun 29 III. The Moon 70 IV. The Solar System 107 V. The Law of Gravitation 122 VI. The Planet of Romance 150 VII. Mercury 155 VIII. Venus 167 IX. The Earth 192 X. Mars 208 XI. The Minor Planets 229 XII. Jupiter 245 XIII. Saturn 268 XIV. Uranus 298 XV. Neptune 315 XVI. Comets 336 XVII. Shooting Stars 372 XVIII. The Starry Heavens 409 XIX. The Distant Suns 425 XX. Double Stars 434 XXI. The Distances of the Stars 441 XXII. Star Clusters and Nebulæ 461 XXIII. The Physical Nature of the Stars 477 XXIV. The Precession and Nutation of the Earth's Axis 492 XXV. The Aberration of Light 503 XXVI. The Astronomical Significance of Heat 513 XXVII. The Tides 531 Appendix 558 LIST OF PLATES. PLATE I. The Planet Saturn Frontispiece II. A Typical Sun-spot To face page 9 A. The Sun " " 44 III. Spots and Faculæ on the Sun " " 37 IV. Solar Prominences or Flames " " 57 V. The Solar Corona " " 62 VI. Chart of the Moon's Surface " " 81 B. Portion of the Moon " " 88 VII. The Lunar Crater Triesnecker " " 93 VIII. A Normal Lunar Crater " " 97 IX. The Lunar Crater Plato " " 102 X. The Lunar Crater Tycho " " 106 XI. The Planet Jupiter " " 254 XII. Coggia's Comet " " 340 C. Comet A., 1892, 1 Swift " " 358 XIII. Spectra of the Sun and of three Stars " " 47 D. The Milky Way, near Messier II. " " 462 XIV. The Great Nebula in Orion " " 466 XV. The Great Nebula in Andromeda " " 468 E. Nebulæ in the Pleiades " " 472 F. ω Centauri " " 474 XVI. Nebulæ observed with Lord Rosse's Telescope " " 476 XVII. The Comet of 1882 " " 357 XVIII. Schiaparelli's Map of Mars " " 221 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIG. PAGE 1. Principle of the Refracting Telescope 11 2. Dome of the South Equatorial at Dunsink Observatory, Co. Dublin 12 3. Section of the Dome of Dunsink Observatory 13 4. The Telescope at Yerkes Observatory, Chicago 15 5. Principle of Herschel's Reflecting Telescope 16 6. South Front of the Yerkes Observatory, Chicago 17 7. Lord Rosse's Telescope 18 8. Meridian Circle 20 9. The Great Bear 27 10. Comparative Sizes of the Earth and the Sun 30 11. The Sun, photographed September 22, 1870 33 12. Photograph of the Solar Surface 35 13. An ordinary Sun-spot 36 14. Scheiner's Observations on Sun-spots 38 15. Zones on the Sun's Surface in which Spots appear 39 16. Texture of the Sun and a small Spot 43 17. The Prism 45 18. Dispersion of Light by the Prism 46 19. Prominences seen in Total Eclipses 53 20. View of the Corona in a Total Eclipse 62 21. View of Corona during Eclipse of January 22, 1898 63 22. The Zodiacal Light in 1874 69 23. Comparative Sizes of the Earth and the Moon 73 24. The Moon's Path around the Sun 76 25. The Phases of the Moon 76 26. The Earth's Shado