[Half-hours with the Telescope by Richard A. Proctor]@TWC D-Link book
Half-hours with the Telescope

CHAPTER VII
7/32

There is a region called the Marsh of Sleep, which exhibits a pale red tint, a colour seen also near the Hyrcinian mountains, within a circumvallation called Lichtenburg.
The brightest portion of the whole lunar disc is Aristarchus, the peaks of which shine often like stars, when the mountain is within the unillumined portion of the moon.

The darkest regions are Grimaldi and Endymion and the great plain called Plato by modern astronomers--but, by Hevelius, the Greater Black Lake.
The Sun .-- Observation of the sun is perhaps on the whole the most interesting work to which the possessor of a moderately good telescope can apply his instrument.

Those wonderful varieties in the appearance of the solar surface which have so long perplexed astronomers, not only supply in themselves interesting subjects of observation and examination, but gain an enhanced meaning from the consideration that they speak meaningly to us of the structure of an orb which is the source of light and heat enjoyed by a series of dependent worlds whereof our earth is--in size at least--a comparatively insignificant member.
Swayed by the attraction of this giant globe, Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, as well as the four minor planets, and the host of asteroids, sweep continuously in their appointed orbits, in ever new but ever safe and orderly relations amongst each other.

If the sun's light and heat were lost, all life and work among the denizens of these orbs would at once cease; if his attractive energy were destroyed, these orbs would cease to form a _system_.
The sun may be observed conveniently in many ways, some more suited to the general observer who has not time or opportunity for systematic observation; others more instructive, though involving more of preparation and arrangement.
The simplest method of observing the sun is to use the telescope in the ordinary manner, protecting the eye by means of dark-green or neutral-tinted glasses.

Some of the most interesting views I have ever obtained of the sun, have resulted from the use of the ordinary terrestrial or erecting eye-piece, capped with a dark glass.


<<Back  Index  Next>>

D-Link book Top

TWC mobile books