Chapter I: Preface

The object of this book is to give an account of the science of Astronomy, as it is known at the present day, in a manner acceptable to the _general reader_.

It is too often supposed that it is impossible to acquire any useful knowledge of Astronomy without much laborious study, and without adventuring into quite a new world of thought. The reasoning applied to the study of the celestial orbs is, however, of no different order from that which is employed in the affairs of everyday life. The science of mathematics is perhaps responsible for the idea that some kind of difference does exist; but mathematical processes are, in effect, no more than ordinary logic in concentrated form, the _shorthand of reasoning_, so to speak. I have attempted in the following pages to take the main facts and theories of Astronomy out of those mathematical forms which repel the general reader, and to present them in the _ordinary language of our workaday world_.

The few diagrams introduced are altogether supplementary, and are not connected with the text by any wearying cross-references. Each diagram is complete in itself, being intended to serve as a pictorial aid, in case the wording of the text should not have perfectly conveyed the desired meaning. The full page illustrations are also described as adequately as possible at the foot of each.

As to the coloured frontispiece, this must be placed in a category by itself. It is the work of the _artist_ as distinct from the scientist.

The book itself contains incidentally a good deal of matter concerned with the Astronomy of the past, the introduction of which has been found necessary in order to make clearer the Astronomy of our time.

It would be quite impossible for me to enumerate here the many sources from which information has been drawn. But I acknowledge my especial indebtedness to Professor F.R. Moulton's _Introduction to Astronomy_ (Macmillan, 1906), to the works on Eclipses of the late Rev. S.J. Johnson and of Mr. W.T. Lynn, and to the excellent _Journals of the British Astronomical Association_. Further, for those grand questions concerned with the Stellar Universe at large, I owe a very deep debt to the writings of the famous American astronomer, Professor Simon Newcomb, and of our own countryman, Mr. John Ellard Gore; to the latter of whom I am under an additional obligation for much valuable information privately rendered.

In my search for suitable illustrations, I have been greatly aided by the kindly advice of Mr. W. H. Wesley, the Assistant Secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society. To those who have been so good as to permit me to reproduce pictures and photographs, I desire to record my best thanks as follows:--To the French Artist, Mdlle. Andrée Moch; to the Astronomer Royal; to Sir David Gill, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S.; to the Council of the Royal Astronomical Society; to Professor E.B. Frost, Director of the Yerkes Observatory; to M.P. Puiseux, of the Paris Observatory; to Dr. Max Wolf, of Heidelberg; to Professor Percival Lowell; to the Rev. Theodore E.R. Phillips, M.A., F.R.A.S.; to Mr. W.H. Wesley; to the Warner and Swasey Co., of Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.; to the publishers of _Knowledge_, and to Messrs. Sampson, Low & Co. For permission to reproduce the beautiful photograph of the Spiral Nebula in Canes Venatici (Plate XXII.), I am indebted to the distinguished astronomer, the late Dr. W.E. Wilson, D.Sc., F.R.S., whose untimely death, I regret to state, occurred in the early part of this year.

Finally, my best thanks are due to Mr. John Ellard Gore, F.R.A.S., M.R.I.A., to Mr. W.H. Wesley, and to Mr. John Butler Burke, M.A., of Cambridge, for their kindness in reading the proof-sheets.

CECIL G. DOLMAGE.

LONDON, S.W., _August 4, 1908._

PREFATORY NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION

The author of this book lived only long enough to hear of the favour with which it had been received, and to make a few corrections in view of the second edition which it has so soon reached.

_December 1908._

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE ANCIENT VIEW 17

CHAPTER II
THE MODERN VIEW 20

CHAPTER III
THE SOLAR SYSTEM 29

CHAPTER IV
CELESTIAL MECHANISM 38

CHAPTER V
CELESTIAL DISTANCES 46

CHAPTER VI
CELESTIAL MEASUREMENT 55

CHAPTER VII
ECLIPSES AND KINDRED PHENOMENA 61

CHAPTER VIII
FAMOUS ECLIPSES OF THE SUN 83

CHAPTER IX
FAMOUS ECLIPSES OF THE MOON 101

CHAPTER X
THE GROWTH OF OBSERVATION 105

CHAPTER XI
SPECTRUM ANALYSIS 121

CHAPTER XII
THE SUN 127

CHAPTER XIII
THE SUN--_continued_ 134

CHAPTER XIV
THE INFERIOR PLANETS 146

CHAPTER XV
THE EARTH 158

CHAPTER XVI
THE MOON 183

CHAPTER XVII
THE SUPERIOR PLANETS 209

CHAPTER XVIII
THE SUPERIOR PLANETS--_continued_ 229

CHAPTER XIX
COMETS 247

CHAPTER XX
REMARKABLE COMETS 259

CHAPTER XXI
METEORS OR SHOOTING STARS 266

CHAPTER XXII
THE STARS 278

CHAPTER XXIII
THE STARS--_continued_ 287

CHAPTER XXIV
SYSTEMS OF STARS 300

CHAPTER XXV
THE STELLAR UNIVERSE 319

CHAPTER XXVI
THE STELLAR UNIVERSE--_continued_ 329

CHAPTER XXVII
THE BEGINNING OF THINGS 333