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Pleasures of the telescope An Illustrated Guide for Amateur Astronomers and a Popular Description of the Chief Wonders of the Heavens for General Readers By: Garrett Putman Serviss (1851-1929) |
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AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE FOR AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS
AND A POPULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE CHIEF
WONDERS OF THE HEAVENS FOR
GENERAL READERS
BY
GARRETT P. SERVISS AUTHOR OF ASTRONOMY WITH AN OPERA GLASS
"This being made, He yearned for worlds to make
From other chaos out beyond our night
For to create is still God's prime delight.
The large moon, all alone, sailed her dark lake,
And the first tides were moving to her might;
Then Darkness trembled, and began to quake
Big with the birth of stars, and when He spake
A million worlds leapt into radiant light." LLOYD MIFFLIN.
WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1901
COPYRIGHT, 1901,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
PREFACE
By the introduction of a complete series of star maps, drawn specially
for the use of the amateur and distributed through the body of the work,
thus facilitating consultation, it is believed that this book makes a
step in advance of its predecessors. The maps show all of the stars
visible to the naked eye in the regions of sky represented, and, in
addition, some stars that can only be seen with optical aid. The latter
have been placed in the maps as guide posts in the telescopic field to
assist those who are searching for faint and inconspicuous objects
referred to in the text. As the book was not written for those who
possess the equipment of an observatory, with telescopes driven by
clockwork and provided with graduated circles, right ascensions and
declinations are not given. All of the telescopic phenomena described
are, however, represented in the maps. Star clusters are indicated by a
conventional symbol, and nebulæ by a little white circle; while a small
cross serves to mark the places where notable new stars have appeared.
The relative magnitudes of the stars are approximately shown by the
dimensions of their symbols in the maps, the smaller stars being
represented by white dots and the larger by star shaped figures. In regard to binary stars, it should be remembered that, in many cases,
their distances and angles of position change so rapidly that any
statement concerning them remains valid only for a few years at the
most. There is also much confusion among the measurements announced by
different authorities. In general, the most recent measurements
obtainable in 1900 are given in the text, but the observer who wishes to
study close and rapid binaries will do well to revise his information
about them as frequently as possible. An excellent list of double stars
kept up to date, will be found in the annual Companion to the
Observatory, published in London. In the lunar charts the plan of inserting the names of the principal
formations has been preferred to that usually followed, of indicating
them only by numbers, accompanied by a key list. Even in the most
detailed charts of the moon only a part of what is visible with
telescopes can be shown, and the representation, at best, must be merely
approximate. It is simply a question of what to include and what to
omit; and in the present case the probable needs of the amateur observer
have governed the selection readiness and convenience of reference
being the chief aim. It should, perhaps, be said here that the various chapters composing
this book like those of "Astronomy with an Opera glass" were, in their
original form, with the single exception of Chapter IX, published in
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly. The author, it is needless to say,
was much gratified by the expressed wish of many readers that these
scattered papers should be revised and collected in a more permanent
form. As bearing upon the general subject of the book, a chapter has
been added, at the end, treating on the question of the existence of
planets among the stars. This also first appeared in the periodical
above mentioned... Continue reading book >>
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