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 THE 



PLANETARY AND STELLAR UNIVERSE. 



WITH NUMEROUS ASTRONOMICAL DIAGRAMS. 



BY 



EOBERT JAMES MANN. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE TELESCOPE. 

 Invention of Instrument, First Astronomical Employment — Radiant Light — Optical Property of 

 Lenses — Camera Obscura — The Eye — Illuminating ami Magnifying Powers of Telescope — Its 

 Various Construction — Astronomical Refractor — Reflectors, — Gregorian, Newtonian, and Le- 

 Mairean — The Parsonstown Leviathan. 



CHAPTER II. 



REVELATIONS OF THE TELESCOPE— THE MOON. 

 A solid opaque Sphere of large size — Without Atmosphere or Water — Inequalities of Surface — ■ 

 Shadows at Quadrature — Height of Projections — Explosive Craters, Tycho — Isolated Peaks — 

 Mountain Ridges — Extended Plains — Recent Extinct Volcanoes, Copernicus, Kepler, Aristar- 

 chus — General Conclusions. 



CHAPTER III. 



REVELATIONS OF THE TELESCOPE— THE PLANETS. 



Mercury — Venus, its Phases, Atmosphere, and Seasons — Mars, its Continents, Atmosphere, and 

 Snows — the Asteroids — Jupiter, its Belt, Perpendicular Axis, and Satellites — Deduction of 

 Rate of Propagation of Light — Saturn, its Rings and Satellites — Herschel. 



CHAPTER IV. 



REVELATIONS OF THE TELESCOPE— THE SUN. 

 Apparent Motions of Sun — Its real Rotation — Maculae of Surface, their Nucleus and Umbra — 

 Analogy with terrestrial atmospheric Changes — Facuhc of Surface — Solar Constitution, a 

 Nucleus and double Atmosphere — Extension and Attenuation of outer Envelope — The Solar 

 System as a whole. 



CHAPTER V. 



REVELATIONS OF THE TELESCOPE— THE FIXED STARS. 

 Parallax — The Means of estimating the Distances and Dimensions of the Sun and Planets — 

 Classification of fixed Stars — Their apparent Motions- — Arrangement in Space — Star Firma- 

 ment — Periodic Stars — Double Stars — Their Revolution and Complementary Colours of Con- 

 stituents — Quadruple Star — Star Clusters — Remote Star Firmaments. 



CHAPTER VI. 



REVELATIONS OF THE TELESCOPE— NEBULyE AND COMETS. 

 Irresolvable Nebulae — Nebulous Stars — Theory of Nebular Condensation — Comets — External 

 Characters — Intimate Constitution — Luminosity — Volume and Density — Nature of Orbits — 

 Halley's, Encke's, Biela's, Faye's, De Vico's, Lexel's — Occasional Comets — Material ponder- 

 able, but seat of some imponderable Elements — Sympathetic relation to Solar Sphere. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE TELESCOPE IN THE OBSERVATORY. 

 Man's primeval Notions of the Universe — Origin of Astronomical Observations — Progress of 

 the Science in Chaldea, Egypt and Greece. — Pythagoras. — The barbarous and dark Ages; 

 Astrology in Arabia, and Spain — 16th. Century ; Copernicus, Tycho Brahe. — 17th Century; 

 Kepler, Galileo, Gascoyne, Picard, and Romer; The Transit and Mural Circle. — 18th Century 

 Establishment of National Observatories. 



CHAPTER Vm. 



IMPORTANCE OF TELESCOPIC OBSERVATION TO THE THEORIES OF 

 PHYSICAL ASTRONOMY. 



Newton ; his deductions from Kepler's Laws. — Examination of the Nature of the Deflecting 

 Power acting upon the Moon — Picard's Measure of a Degree— Identification by it of Deflecting 

 Force with Terrestrial Gravitations. — Extension of Principle to Investigation of Perturbations 

 and Densities of Planets. — Adaptation of Projectile and Deflecting Forces to Elliptical Motion. 



Reeve, Brothers, King William Street, Strand. 



