Chapter I: Preface

Having in my “Story of the Stars” told of far distant suns, many of them probably with planets revolving around them, I have in the present volume, which is a companion to the former one, to treat of the Sun in particular—our Sun as we may call him—and the body of attendants which own his sway by revolving round him. The attendants are the planets, commonly so called, together with a certain number of comets. I shall deal with all these objects rather from a descriptive and practical than from a speculative or essay point of view, and with special reference to the convenience and opportunities of persons possessing, or having access to, what may be called popular telescopes—telescopes say of from two to four inches of aperture, and costing any sum between £10 and £50. There is much pleasure and profit to be got out of telescopes of this type, always presuming that they are used by persons possessed of patience and perseverance. It is a very great mistake, though an extremely common one, to suppose that unless a man can command a big telescope he can do no useful work, and derive no pleasure from his work. To all such croakers I always point as a moral the achievements of Hermann Goldschmidt, who from an attic window at Fontenay-aux-Roses near Paris, with a telescope of only 2½ inches aperture, discovered no fewer than 14 minor planets.

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

THE
STORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.