Astronomy for the use of schools and academies (1882) (14764381895)

Identifier: astronomyforuseo00gill (find matches)

Title: Astronomy for the use of schools and academies

Year: 1882 (1880s)

Authors: Gillet, J. A. (Joseph Anthony), 1837-1908 Rolfe, W. J. (William James), 1827-1910

Subjects: Astronomy

Publisher: New York : Potter, Ainsworth, & Co.

Contributing Library: The Library of Congress

Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

Text Appearing Before Image:

324 ASTRONOMY. The number of stars between the north pole and the circlethirty-five degrees south of the equator is about as follows: — Of the ist magnitude about 14 stars. Of the 2d magnitude about 48 stars. Of the 3d magnitude about 152 stars. Of the 4th magnitude about 313 stars. Of the 5th magnitude about 854 stars. Of the 6th magnitude about 2010 stars. Total visible to naked eye 3391 stars.

Text Appearing After Image:

Fig. 365. The number of stars of the several magnitudes is approxi-mately in inverse proportion to that of their brightness, theratio being a little greater in the higher magnitudes, and proba-bly a little less in the lower ones. ASTRONOMY. 325 324. The Division of the Stars into Constellations.—A glance at the heavens is sufficient to show that the starsare not distributed uniformly over the sky. The larger onesespecially are collected into more or less irregular groups.The larger groups are called constellations. At a very earlyperiod a mythological figure was allotted to each constella-tion ; and these figures were drawn in such a way as toinclude the principal stars of each constellation. Theheavens thus became covered, as it were, with immensehieroglyphics. There is no historic record of the time when these figureswere formed, or of the principle in accordance with which theywere constructed. It is probable that the imagination of theearlier peoples may, in many instances, have

astronomy for the use of schools and academies 1882 book illustrations astronomy north pole arctic regions high resolution images from internet archive library of congress

1882

Library of Congress

http://commons.wikimedia.org/

public domain