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A Popular Guide to the Heavens

A Popular Guide to the Heavens

A Popular Guide to the Heavens

Robert Stawell Ball
September 2013
Paperback
9781108066495
AUD$47.95
inc GST
Paperback

    A talented mathematician trained at Trinity College, Dublin, Sir Robert Stawell Ball (1840–1913) was best known in the early twentieth century for his immensely popular books on astronomy. He also gave the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures on five occasions. First published in 1905, this concise guide to the basics of astronomy assumes almost no prior knowledge of the subject. Beginning with simple phenomena such as the seasons and the effects of atmospheric refraction, Ball expands quickly into month-by-month indexes of the night sky, star charts, and explanations of some of the lesser-known stellar and solar features, from the paths of sunspots to details of the major nebulae. Including over eighty pages of meticulous charts and illustrations, his book remains an excellent resource for students in the history of science, and interested laypeople. Also reissued in this series are The Story of the Heavens (1885) and Star-Land (1889), alongside Ball's more technical Treatise on Spherical Astronomy (1908).

    Product details

    September 2013
    Paperback
    9781108066495
    216 pages
    229 × 152 × 13 mm
    0.32kg
    30 b/w illus. 53 colour illus.
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Preface
    • 1. The celestial sphere and the solar system
    • 2. The planets and satellites
    • 3. The sun
    • eclipses of the sun and moon
    • 4. Comets
    • 5. The moon
    • 6. The sky month by month and the index to the planets
    • 7. The star maps
    • 8. Star clusters and nebulae
    • 9. Select list of telescopic objects
    • Appendix
    • Index.
    Resources for
    Type
    Plate 8: Map of Mars, 1896–97
    Size: 3.21 MB
    Type: application/pdf
    Plate 28: 4th day
    Size: 2.35 MB
    Type: application/pdf
    Plate 36: 12th day
    Size: 3.71 MB
    Type: application/pdf
    Plate 44: June midnight
    Size: 3.89 MB
    Type: application/pdf
    Plate 52: Star map
    Size: 4.51 MB
    Type: application/pdf
    Plate 60: Star map
    Size: 4.78 MB
    Type: application/pdf
    Plate 68: Star map
    Size: 4.03 MB
    Type: application/pdf
    Plate 9: Jupiter
    Size: 4.43 MB
    Type: application/pdf
    Plate 29: 5th day
    Size: 2.64 MB
    Type: application/pdf
    Plate 37: 13th day
    Size: 3.15 MB
    Type: application/pdf
    Plate 45: July midnight
    Size: 4.01 MB
    Type: application/pdf
    Plate 53: Star map
    Size: 4.28 MB
    Type: application/pdf
      Author
    • Robert Stawell Ball