Astronomical Register: A Medium of Communication for Amateur Observers and All Others Interested in the Science of Astronomy, Volume 4

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J. D. Potter., 1867 - Astronomy

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Page 206 - There it was that I found and visited the famous Galileo, grown old, a prisoner to the Inquisition for thinking in astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought.
Page 206 - He scarce had ceased, when the superior fiend Was moving toward the shore ; his ponderous shield, Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, Behind him cast ; the broad circumference Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At evening from the top of Fesole Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.
Page 35 - Society, he was enabled to give attention to the subject during the greater part of the year following. The details of the process employed are given with much minuteness. The telescope used was the equatorial refractor at the Liverpool Observatory, of 8 inches aperture and iai feet focal length, which produced an image of the Moon i '35-inch diameter.
Page 32 - I saw, with a 12-inch reflector, a spot burst in pieces while I was looking at it. I could not expect such an event, and therefore cannot be certain of the exact particulars; but the appearance, as it struck me at the time, was like that of a piece of ice when dashed on a frozen pond, which breaks in pieces, and slides on the surface in various directions. I was then a very young astronomer, but I think I may be sure of the fact.
Page 37 - Sccchi, has been pointed out by Mr. De la Rue, namely, that those portions of the moon's surface which are illuminated by a very oblique ray from the sun possess so little photogenic power that, although to the eye they appear as bright as other portions of the moon illuminated by a more direct ray, the latter will produce the effect called by photographers solarisation, before the former (the obliquelyilluminated portions) can produce the faintest image.
Page 216 - Hence the potatoes, after remaining for some hours in the boiling water, were nearly as hard as ever. The pot was left on the fire all night, and next morning it was boiled again, but yet the potatoes were not cooked. I found out this by overhearing my two companions discussing the cause : they had come to the simple conclusion, "that the cursed pot (which was a new one) did not choose to boil potatoes.
Page 257 - PM, a small preliminary shower of rain fell, deep-toned thunder rolled and reverberated, and vivid lightning streamed and blazed over the devoted station. The hail was ushered in by a few bright lensshaped stones, as large as pigeons
Page 32 - I have eaid, he spent to satisfy himself — six more years to satisfy, and still thirteen more to convince, mankind. For thirty years never has the Sun exhibited his disc above the horizon of Dessau without being confronted by Schwabe's imperturbable telescope, and that appears to have happened on an average about 300 days a-year.
Page 186 - The actual illumination of the lunar surface is not much superior to that of weathered sandstone rock in full sunshine. I have frequently compared the moon setting behind the grey perpendicular facade of the Table Mountain, illuminated by the sun just risen in the opposite quarter of the horizon, when it has been scarcely distinguishable in brightness from the rock in contact with it. The sun and moon being nearly at equal altitudes, and the atmosphere perfectly free from cloud or vapour, its effect...
Page 36 - Crookes afterwards enlarged his negatives -twenty diameters, and he expresses his opinion that the magnifying should be conducted simultaneously with the photography by having a proper arrangement of lenses, so as to throw an enlarged image of the moon at once on the collodion plate ; and he states that the want of light could be no objection, as an exposure of from two to ten minutes would not be " too severe a tax upon a steady and skilful hand and eye.

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