The Museum of Science and Art, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Museum of Science and Art, Vol. 1Chap. II. - 1. Encke's calculation of the direction of the shooting-stars seen from 1833 to 1838.-2. Apparent magnitudes of those objects - 3. The luminous train which follows them not an optical illusion. - 4. Hypotheses to explain them. - 5. Heights, directions, and velocity of shooting-stars, calculated by Brandes. - 6. A like calculation by Quetelet.-7. A like calculation by Wartmann. - 8. Shooting-stars and fire-balls identical. - 9. Lunar origin rejected - 10. Received explanation of the phenomena. 11. Difficulties and objections - 12. Description of great shower of stars witnessed in 1799 by Humboldt and Bonpland. 13. Description of like showers in 1833-49 - 14. August meteors - 15. Halley suggests the use of these meteors to deter mine the longitude. - 16. Table of shooting-stars from 763 to 1837. - 17. Inferences from this - 18. Observation of Sir J. Herschel in 1836. - 19. Of Wartm nn in 1837. - 20. Of Tharand in 1832 - 21. Annual epochs of t e prevalence of these meteors. - 22. Why those masses are not visible like the moon and planets by the reflected light of the sun. - 23. Zodiacal light. 24. The nebulous matter producing it may cause shooting-stars. 25. Shooting-stars may become satellites to the earth. - 26. M Petit claims to have discovered one. - 27. Sun-stones.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.