Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 33Priestley and Weale, 1873 - Astronomy Includes lists of additions to the Society's library, usually separately paged. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accuracy Andromeda angle aperture appeared Astronomer Royal atmosphere bisection bright Caille's calculations Cassiopeia catalogue centre chart Chromosphere circle clock clouds comet comparison correction Decl Delisle's determined diameter difference direction disk distance double stars Earth eclipse equal equatoreal error eye-piece faint favourable Greenwich Halley's method heliometer Herschel inches instrument last contact latitude libration limb logarithms longitude lunar magnitude Mars mean measures meridian micrometer minutes Monthly Notices Moon Moon's nearly nebulæ northern station Note November object-glass observations Observatory obtained orbit paper parallax pendulum perihelion Perseus planet position Possession Island probable Proctor Prof Professor proper motion R. A. Proctor radiant point remark right ascension Royal Observatory satellite screw seen solar Southern stars Sun's tables telescope Thomas Maclear tion Transit of Venus visible Vlacq Weisse zenith
Popular passages
Page 508 - ... when the novelty of the subject is considered, we cannot be surprised that many things, formerly taken for granted, should on examination prove to be different from what they were generally but incautiously supposed to be. For instance, an equal scattering of the stars may be admitted in certain calculations ; but when we examine the Milky Way, or the closely- compressed clusters of stars, this supposed equality of scattering must be given up.
Page 41 - And afterwards they fell from the sky in such numbers, and so thickly together, that as they descended low in the air, they seemed large and fiery, and the sky and the air seemed to be in flames, and even the earth appeared as if ready to take fire.
Page 380 - BC about the death of Caesar. But I think in his notice under 733, the above eclipse is alluded to, " A year after the Arabs had been driven back beyond the Pyrenees as the result of the battle of Tours, the Sun was darkened on the 19th of August in a terrifying manner." — Schnurrer, Chron., Th. 1, S. 164. This must be the first annular eclipse in England, of which we have any record. 795. "In this year the Moon was eclipsed between cockcrowing and dawn on the Vth of the Kal. of April ; and Eardwulf...
Page 222 - Brothers' picture obtained with an instrument of special construction, but all show one deep rift especially, which seemed to cut down through both the outer and inner corona clear to the limb of the Moon. Even to the naked eye it was one of the most conspicuous features of the eclipse. Many other points of detail also come out identical in the Spanish and Sicilian pictures.
Page 508 - ... this supposed equality of scattering must be given up. We may also have surmised nebulae to be no other than clusters of stars disguised by their very great distance, but a longer experience and better acquaintance with the nature of nebulae will not allow a general admission of such a principle, although undoubtedly a cluster of stars may assume a nebulous appearance when it is too remote for us to discern the stars of which it is composed.
Page 179 - Now that the two great geologists have been removed from us, it is but justice to the memory of Professor Sedgwick to allude to a subject which was the cause of much bitterness of feeling at the time, and to remark that his original opinions have been fully confirmed by subsequent examinations. In 1851, the Council of the Geological Society awarded to Professor Sedgwick the Wollaston Palladium Medal " for his original researches in developing the geological structure of the British Isles, of the...
Page 509 - It was by applying this new method that he arrived at the conclusions, on which Struve afterwards so strongly insisted, that parts of the sidereal system are absolutely unfathomable. Yet his former and sound principle of interpretation, and the principle which Sir John Herschel, Whewell, and Herbert Spencer applied to the Magellanic Clouds, show that where...
Page 381 - On the fifth night in the month of May, the Moon appeared in the evening, brightly shining, and afterwards by little and little its light waned, so that as soon as it was night it was so completely quenched, that neither light nor orb, nor anything of it was seen. And so it continued very near until day, and then appeared full and brightly shining. It was on this same day a fortnight old. All the night the air was very clear, and the stars over all the heaven brightly shining. And the tree-fruits...
Page 222 - Eye-sketches cannot be depended on ; the drawings made by persons standing side by side differ often to an extent that is most perplexing. Now photographs have, undoubtedly, as yet failed to catch many of the faint markings and delicate details ; but their testimony, as far as it goes, is unimpeachable. In 1870, Lord Lindsay at Santa Maria, Professor Winlock at Jerez, Mr. Brothers at Syracuse, obtained pictures, some of which, on account partly of the unsatisfactory state of the weather, could not...
Page 216 - D"), or even a somewhat greater velocity, could not be certainly observed. The difficulty arising from the apparent smallness of the change of refrangibility is greatly increased by some other circumstances. The star's light is faint when a narrow slit is used, and the...