A beginner's star-book; an easy guide to the stars and to the astronomical uses of the opera-glass, the field-glass and the telescope . ever sawa planet near the Great Dipper, or in Orion, or in Herculesor Canis Major. Their path lies in close proximity to a linecalled the ecliptic; and this same course is followed bythem all as well as by the Sun and the moon. They keep tothis path not rigidly, however, but with slight variations toone side or the other; and this general track is called theZodiac. The star-groups or constellations which form thefixed background of the Zodiac are therefore cal
A beginner's star-book; an easy guide to the stars and to the astronomical uses of the opera-glass, the field-glass and the telescope . ever sawa planet near the Great Dipper, or in Orion, or in Herculesor Canis Major. Their path lies in close proximity to a linecalled the ecliptic; and this same course is followed bythem all as well as by the Sun and the moon. They keep tothis path not rigidly, however, but with slight variations toone side or the other; and this general track is called theZodiac. The star-groups or constellations which form thefixed background of the Zodiac are therefore called thezodiacal constellations. The ecliptic, which is itself the pathof the Sun, will be found clearly indicated on the larger ofthe two maps at the close of this volume. Each planet isalways somewhere in the Zodiac and is said to be in the constellation lying at thebackground of this position. The Zodiac or track of the planets lies through the followingconstellations:—Aries, the Ram; Taurus, the Bull; Gemini, the Twins; Cancer, the Crab;Leo, the Lion; Virgo, the Virgin; Libra, the Scales or Balances; Scorpius, the Scorpion;. SATURN, 1900 From the Yerkes Observatory tTbc planets Si Sagittarius, the Archer; Capricornus, the Sea-Goat; Aquarius, the Water-Bearer; Pisces,the Fishes.* The Zodiac extends 8° on each side of the ecliptic. The Greeks reckoned seven as the number of the planets, but they included boththe Sun and the moon in the list. We do not, of course, include the Sun and moon, butthe number is for us seven also,—for we have added to the list inmodern times two planets that the Greeks did not know, Uranusand Neptune. The names of the planets, in the order of theirdistance outward from the Sun, are here printed, with their con-ventional symbols:—^ Mercury; 9 Venus; ©Earth; c? Mars;21 Jupiter; h Saturn; S or ijiUranus; W Neptune. The largestplanet is Jupiter—with diameter nearly eleven times that ofthe earth; the smallest is Mercury, its diameter a little ov
Size: 1003px × 2492px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade19, booksubjectastronomy, bookyear1912
