A Cycle of Celestial Objects: Observed, Reduced, and Discussed |
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A Cycle of Celestial Objects, Observed, Reduced, and Discussed W. H. Smyth,George F. Chambers Limited preview - 2024 |
Common terms and phrases
10th magnitude Andromeda angle Aquila asterism astronomers Auriga Bear's tail binary star blue bluish Boötes Boötis bright star BURNHAM CASSIOPEIÆ Catalogue of 1864 Ceti close double star cloth cluster thus described colour constellation Cygni Decl delicate double star DEMBOWSKI described in Sir Distance distant companion DOBERCK DRACONIS DUNÉR Dunlop Edition Engraved Epoch Extra fcap faint field Flamsteed Geminorum globular cluster HERCULIS HERSCHEL Herschel's Catalogue Hevelius JEDRZEJEWICZ Leonis Lyræ MÄDLER means means:-"a cluster meridian Messier middle Nautical Almanac star nearly neat double star nebula thus described object observations Ophiuchi orbit Orionis Oxford pale white pale yellow Pegasi Persei Phil Piazzi planetary nebula Pleiades Position Prec preceding pretty large proper motion Ptolemy remarkable round Scorpii SECCHI Sirius small stars SMYTH SOUTH sp quadrant STRUVE tail Tauri Trans triple star Ursa Majoris URSÆ variable VIRGINIS vols yellowish ΜΑΙΝ
Popular passages
Page 94 - Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, Or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
Page 376 - Trans. 1828) ; but it is from the observations of Sir John Herschel, at the Cape, that the knowledge of its splendid character is derived. That astronomer pronounces it, beyond all comparison, the richest and largest object of the kind in the heavens.
Page 503 - For I perceived that, if light was propagated in time, the apparent place of a fixed object would not be the same when the eye is at rest, as when it is moving in any other direction than that of the line passing through the eye and...
Page 103 - If this matter is self-luminous, it seems more fit to produce a star by its condensation than to depend on the star for its existence.
Page 353 - God — glide by unnoticed, and drop out of memory beyond reach of recovery, because we will not take the pains to note them in their unobtrusive and furtive passage, because we see them in their everyday dress, and mark no sudden change, and conclude that all is dead, because we will not look for signs of life ; and that all is uninteresting, because we are not impressed and dazzled.
Page 150 - ... figure. Several astronomers, on comparing this nebula with the figures of it handed down to us by its discoverer, Huygens, have concluded that its form has undergone a perceptible change. But when it is considered how difficult it is to represent such an object duly, and how entirely its appearance will differ, even in the same telescope, according to the clearness of the air, or other temporary causes, we shall readily admit that we have no evidence of change that can be relied on.
Page 102 - As, by the former supposition, the luminous central point must far exceed the standard of what we call a star, so, in the latter, the shining matter about the centre will be much too small to come under the same denomination; we therefore either have a central body which is not a star, or have a star which is involved in a shining fluid, of a nature totally unknown to us.
Page 617 - ... it affords a positive instance of a double star which, besides the individuals revolving round each other, or about their common centre of gravity, has a progressive uniform motion towards some determinate region. This path is relatively spiral, but still so vast as to appear rectilinear ; but too little is yet known of its amount and direction to refer it to definite laws.