As this volume is intended for general reading, rather than for educational or technical purposes, I have kept statistical details and numerical expressions within very narrow limits, mere figures being always more or less unattractive.
John Richard Green, in the Preface to his book on The Making of England, writes as follows:—“I may add, in explanation of the reappearance of a few passages ... which my readers may have seen before, that where I had little or nothing to add or to change, I have preferred to insert a passage from previous work, with the requisite connections and references, to the affectation of rewriting such a passage for the mere sake of giving it an air of novelty.” I will venture to adopt this thought as my own, and to apply it to the repetition, here and there, of ideas and phrases which are already to be found in my Handbook of Astronomy.
G. F. C.
Northfield Grange,
Eastbourne, 1895.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE [I. Introductory Statement] 7 [II. The Sun] 18 [III. Mercury] 57 [IV. Venus] 61 [V. The Earth] 69 [VI. The Moon] 89 [VII. Mars] 100 [VIII. The Minor Planets] 110 [IX. Jupiter] 115 [X. Saturn] 122 [XI. Uranus] 138 [XII. Neptune] 143 [XIII. Comets] 150 [Appendix—Tables of the Solar System] 182 [General Index] 185
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIGURE PAGE [1. The Planet Saturn] Frontispiece [2. Inclination of Planetary Orbits] 9 [3. Comparative Sizes of Major Planets] 11 [4. Comparative Size of the Sun as seen from the Planets Named] 17 [5. Ordinary Sun-spots, June 22, 1885] 22 [6. Change of Form in Sun-spots Owing to the Sun’s Rotation] 29 [7. Sun-spots seen as a Notch] 37 [8. The Sun Totally Eclipsed, July 18, 1860] 56 [9. Venus, Dec. 23, 1885] 64 [10. Venus Near Conjunction as a Thin Crescent] 65 [11. Mare Crisium (Lick Observatory photographs)] 90 [12. Four Views of Mars (Barnard)] 101 [13. Mars, Aug. 27, 1892 (Guyot)] 107 [14. Jupiter, Nov. 27, 1857 (Dawes)] 116 [15. Saturn, 1889] 123 [16. General View of the Phases of Saturn’s Rings] 126 [17. Phases of Saturn’s Rings at Specified Dates] 129 [18. Saturn with Titan and its Shadow] 137 [19. Telescopic Comet with a Nucleus] 154 [20. Comet seen in Daylight, Sept., 1882] 155 [21. Quenisset’s Comet, July 9, 1893] 156 [22. Holmes’s Comet, the Head on Nov. 9, 1892 (Denning)] 159 [23. Holmes’s Comet, the Head on Nov. 16, 1892 (Denning)] 159 [24. Comet III. of 1862, on Aug. 22, showing Jet of Luminous Matter (Challis)] 160 [25. Sawerthal’s Comet, June 4, 1888 (Charlois)] 165 [26. Biela’s Comet, 1846] 169 [27. The Great Comet of 1811] 177 [28. The Great Comet of 1882] 179