The Book of Stars: Being a Simple Explanation of the Stars and Their Uses to Boy LifeCollins, A. Frederick (Archie Frederick)
Science
The Book of Stars: Being a Simple Explanation of the Stars and Their Uses to Boy Life
Collins, A. Frederick (Archie Frederick)
Astronomy -- Juvenile literature; Stars -- Juvenile literature
There is another crater mountain which you should by all means know
and that is Copernicus[2] (pronounced Ko-per´-ni-kus). Look through
your glass at the southeastern end of the Apennines and you will see a
crater that is larger in diameter than Tycho, though it is not so deep.
Tycho, Copernicus and the Apennines will serve you well as landmarks if
you follow up the explorations of the Moon which you have so well begun.
[Footnote 2: Copernicus—Polish, astronomer. Born 1473. Before his time
it was believed that the Sun, Moon and stars revolved round the Earth.
Copernicus showed that the Earth was a planet and, with the others,
that it revolved round the Sun.]
=The Sun.=—You can see the spots on the Sun quite well with your glass,
and sunspots are always interesting.
Do not try to look at the Sun through your glass without covering the
eyepiece either with a thickly smoked or dark-colored glass. You must
also use smoked or colored glasses over your eyepiece when you are
looking at an eclipse of the Sun.
You should look for sunspots this year, 1920, for they are decreasing
in number and size and in a few years there will be scarcely any. After
that there will be more of them again.
=The Planets.=—After you have seen the mountains on the Moon and the
spots on the Sun you should next turn your glass on the planets.
While you will probably say that the planets loom up very small—the
largest, Jupiter, appearing about the size of the head of a large
pin—yet they are wonderful to look at even through the smallest
telescope.
=Mercury.=—This is a planet not easy to see even with the aid of a
glass so if you see it you can think that you are lucky or skillful or
perhaps a little of both.
=Venus.=—Venus can be seen very much better with your small glass than
Mercury, but you will only be able to see it as a little disk and not
as a crescent for your glass is of too low a magnifying power. It is a
brilliant object though even through the smallest glass.
=Mars.=—While you cannot see the canals of Mars with your glass you can
see it as a bright disk of light and this is well worth while. Mars is
believed to be peopled and the thought that it may be makes it a mighty
interesting object to look at. Look at it through your glass and think
it over.
=Jupiter.=—On account of his great size you will be able to see Jupiter
better than any of the other planets. His disk will show clear and
distinct and if you have good eyesight and your glass is fairly good
you will be able to see one and perhaps two of his nine moons which
will appear as little points of light close to the planet.
=Saturn.=—The rings of Saturn cannot be seen with a glass magnifying
less than four times. His rings are at this writing (1915) in the best
position to be seen as the flat side of the rings is toward us now. In
1921 the edge of his rings will be in a line with the Earth and then it
will be very hard to see them even with a much larger telescope.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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