tailieunhanh - ASTRONOMY FOR AMATEURS

The Science of Astronomy is sublime and beautiful. Noble, elevating, consoling, divine, it gives us wings, and bears us through Infinitude. In these ethereal regions all is pure, luminous, and splendid. Dreams of the Ideal, even of the Inaccessible, weave their subtle spells upon us. The imagination soars aloft, and aspires to the sources of Eternal Beauty. | ASTRONOMY FOR AMATEURS BY CAMILLE FLAMMARION AUTHOR OF POPULAR ASTRONOMY AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY FRANCES A. WELBY ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK AND LONDON D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1910 Copyright 1904 by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Published October 1904 TO Madame . CAVARÉ ORIGINAL MEMBER OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF FRANCE CHATEAU DE MAUPERTHUIS Madame I have dedicated none of my works save Stella offered to the liberal-minded the free and generous friend of progress and patron of the sciences James Gordon Bennett editor of the New York Herald. In this volume Madame I make another exception and ask your permission to offer it to the first woman who consented to be enrolled in the list of members of the Astronomical Society of France as foundress of this splendid work from the very beginning of our vast association 1887 and who also desired to take part in the permanent organization of the Observatory at Juvisy a task of private enterprise emancipated from administrative routine. An Astronomy for Women 1 can not be better placed than upon the table of a lady whose erudition is equal to her virtues and who has consecrated her long career to the pursuit and service of the Beautiful the Good and the True. Camille Flammarion. Observatory of Juvisy November 1903. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Introduction 1 I. The Contemplation of the Heavens 10 II. The Constellations 28 III. The Stars Suns of the Infinite. A Journey through Space 56 IV. Our Star the Sun 88 V. The Planets. A. Mercury Venus The Earth Mars 113 VI. The Planets. B. Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune 146 VII. The Comets 172 VIII. The Earth 205 IX. The Moon 232 X. The Eclipses 259 On Methods. How Celestial Distances are Determined and How XI. 287 the Sun is Weighed XII. Life Universal and Eternal 317 Index 341 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Contemplation Frontispiece From a painting by Paul Renaud FIG. PAGE 1. The great Book of the Heavens is open to all eyes .