Astronomy in a nutshell : $b The chief facts and principles explained in popular language for the general reader and for schools — John Shaqi
Astronomy in a nutshell : $b The chief facts and principles explained in popular language for the general reader and for schoolsServiss, Garrett Putman
Science
Astronomy in a nutshell : $b The chief facts and principles explained in popular language for the general reader and for schools
Serviss, Garrett Putman
Astronomy -- Juvenile literature
Now, suppose that we should go to the north pole. The celestial north
pole would then be in our zenith, and the equator would correspond with
the horizon. Thus, for an observer at the north pole the two systems of
circles that we have described would fall into coincidence. The zenith
would correspond with the pole of the heavens; the horizon would
correspond with the celestial equator; the vertical circles would
correspond with the hour circles; and the altitude circles would
correspond with the circles of declination. The North Star, being close
to the pole of the heavens, would appear directly overhead. Being at the
zenith, its altitude would be 90° (see Sect. 4). Peary, if he had
visited the pole during the polar night, would have seen the North Star
overhead, and it would have enabled him with relatively little trouble
to determine his exact place on the earth, or, in other words, the exact
location of the north terrestrial pole. With the pole star in the
zenith, it is evident that the other stars would be seen revolving round
it in circles parallel to the horizon. All the stars situated north of
the celestial equator would be simultaneously and continuously visible.
None of them would either rise or set, but all, in the course of
twenty-four hours, would appear to make a complete circuit horizontally
round the sky. This polar presentation of the celestial sphere is called
the parallel sphere, because the stars appear to move parallel to the
horizon. No man has yet beheld the nocturnal phenomena of the parallel
sphere, but if in the future some explorer should visit one of the
earth's poles during the polar night, he would behold the spectacle in
all its strange splendour.
[Illustration:
=Jupiter=
Photographed at the Lick Observatory.
Observe on the left the Great Red Spot, which first appeared in 1878.
]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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