The description and use of the globes and the orrery: To which is prefix'd, by way of introduction, a brief account of the solar systemHarris, Joseph
History
The description and use of the globes and the orrery: To which is prefix'd, by way of introduction, a brief account of the solar system
Harris, Joseph
Astronomical models; Globes
If from this position we gradually move the globe according to
the several alterations of latitudes, which we will suppose to be
Northerly; the lengths of the _Diurnal Arches_ will continually
increase, until we come to a parallel of declination, as far distant
from the equinoctial, as the place itself is from the Pole. This
parallel will just touch the horizon, and all the heavenly bodies that
are betwixt it and the Pole never descend below the horizon. In the
mean time, while we are moving the globe, the lengths of the diurnal
arches of the Southern parallels of declination, continually diminish
in the same proportion that the Northern ones increased; until we
come to that parallel of declination which is so far distant from the
equinoctial Southerly, as the place itself is from the North Pole. The
upper part of this _Parallel_ just touches the horizon, and all the
Stars that are betwixt it and the South Pole never appear above the
horizon. And all the nocturnal arches of the Southern parallels of
declination, are exactly of the same length with the diurnal arches of
the correspondent parallels of North declination.
2. Let us take a view of the globe when it is rectified for the
latitude of _London_, or 51½ degrees North. When the Sun is in the
tropic of ♋, the day is about 16½ hours; as he recedes from this
tropic, the days proportionably shorten, until, he arrives into ♑, and
then the days are at the shortest, being now of the same length with
the night, when the Sun was in ♋, _viz._ 7½ hours. The lower part of
that parallel of declination, which is 38½ degrees from the equinoctial
Northerly, just touches the horizon; and the Stars that are betwixt
this parallel and the North Pole, never set to us at _London_. In like
manner the upper part of the Southern parallel of 38½ degrees just
touches the horizon, and the Stars that lie betwixt this parallel and
the Southern Pole, are never visible in this latitude.
Again, let us rectify the globe for the latitude of the _Arctic
Circle_, we shall then find, that when the Sun is in ♋, he touches the
horizon on that day without setting, being 24 hours compleat above the
horizon; and when he is in _Capricorn_, he once appears in the horizon,
but does not rise in the space of 24 hours: When he is in any other
point of the ecliptic, the days are longer or shorter, according to his
distance from the tropics. All the Stars that lie between the tropic
of _Cancer_, and the North Pole, never set in this latitude; and those
that are between the tropic of _Capricorn_, and the South Pole, are
always hid below the horizon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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