Cosmos: Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe, Volume 3, Part 1Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans ... and John Murray, 1851 - Astronomy |
Common terms and phrases
1st magnitude 61 Cygni 6th magnitude according æther Aldebaran Annuaire appear Arago Aratus Arcturus Argelander Argûs Astr astronomers atmosphere Bessel brightness Cape Observations Cassiopeia Catalogue celestial century clusters of stars colour comets Compare conjecture constellation cosmical Cosmos Cygni d'une Decl determination distance double stars Earth English edition epoch étoiles fainter fixed stars geographical miles heavenly bodies heavens hemispheres Hipparchus Hist Jacques Cassini Jupiter's satellites Kepler Kosmos l'Astr l'image l'objectif l'œil light lumière luminous lunette Lyræ Mädler magnifying power measuring Milky moon multiple stars Nachr naked eye nature nebula number of stars Ophiuchus optical orbit Orionis parallax passage period phænomena photometric physical planetary planets principal star proper motion Ptolemy quæ rayons rays recognised remarkable respecting result scintillation seen sidereal Sir John Herschel Sirius solar system southern space sphere stella Struve surface telescope tion Tycho Brahe Ursæ variable stars velocity visible William Herschel
Popular passages
Page vii - But to derive two or three general principles of motion from phaenomena, and afterwards to tell us how the properties and actions of all corporeal things follow from those manifest principles, would be a very great step in philosophy, though the causes of those principles were not yet discovered. And therefore I scruple not to propose the principles of motion above mentioned, they being of very general extent, and leave their causes to be found out.
Page vii - I do not here consider. What I call attraction may be performed by impulse, or by some other means unknown to me. I use that Word here to signify only in general any Force by which Bodies tend towards one another, whatsoever be the Cause.
Page xxii - ... we have ourselves heard it stated by a celebrated optician, that the earliest circumstance which drew his attention to astronomy was the regular appearance, at a certain hour, for several successive days, of a considerable star, through the shaft of a chimney.
Page vii - To tell us that every species of things is endowed with an occult specific quality by which it acts and produces manifest effects, is to tell us nothing...
Page xi - By their vivifying action vegetables are enabled to draw support from inorganic matter, and become, in their turn the support of animals and of man, and the sources of those great deposits of dynamical efficiency which are laid up for human use in our coal...
Page xvii - J'ai seulement besoin de dire qu'en répétant la même série d'épreuves et avec les mêmes instruments sur la lumière que lance une substance gazeuse enflammée, on ne lui trouve, sous quelque inclinaison que ce soit, aucun des caractères de la lumière polarisée; que la lumière des gaz, prise à...
Page xi - ... of those great deposits of dynamical efficiency which are laid up for human use in our coal strata.* By them the waters of the sea are made to circulate in vapour through the air, and irrigate the land, producing springs and rivers. By them are produced all disturbances of the chemical equilibrium of the elements of nature, which, by a series of compositions and decompositions, give rise to new products, and originate a transfer of materials.
Page 72 - Cassini at 14' 10" ; Newton, which is very striking, much nearer to the truth, at 7' 30". Delambre, by taking into account, among the observations of his time, only those of the first satellite, found 8
Page xvii - Je ne m'arrête pas à te rappeler ici comment je déduisis de ce fait la conséquence curieuse que la lumière ne s'engendre pas seulement à la surface des corps; qu'une portion naît dans leur substance même, cette substance fût-elle du platine. J'ai seulement besoin de dire qu'en répétant la même série d'épreuves et avec les mêmes instruments sur la lumière que lance une substance...
Page xxix - II résulte de ces considérations que l'explication des scintillations ne peut être rattachée qu'au phénomènes des interférences lumineuses. Les rayons des étoiles, après avoir traversé une atmosphère où il existe des couches inégalement chaudes, inégalement denses, inégalement humides, vont se réunir au foyer d'une lentille...