File:A high-school astronomy- in which the descriptive, physical, and practical are combined (1859) (14577703337).jpg

Identifier: highschoolastro00matt (find matches)
Title: A high-school astronomy: in which the descriptive, physical, and practical are combined ..
Year: 1859 (1850s)
Authors: Mattison, Hiram, 1811-1868
Subjects: Astronomy
Publisher: New York, Mason brothers
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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opernicus tells us that he was first led to think that the apparent motions of the heav-enly bodies, in their diurnal revolution, were owing to the real motion of the earth inthe opposite direction, from observing instances of the same kind among terrestrial ob-jects ; as when the shore seems to the mariner to recede as he rapidly sails from it, andas trees and other objects seem to glide by us, when, on riding swiftly past them, we losethe consciousness of our own motion. This remark would go to show that the revolu-tion of the earth on its own axis was an original discovery with Copernicus. 12. State the second leading feature of the Copernican system. (Do notour own senses furnish proof that the heavenly bodies revolve westwarddaily ? Why not ? What remark from Copernicus ? What does it seem toimply ?) COPERNICAN SYSTEM. 15 13. A third feature of the Copernican theory is, thatthe sun is the grand center around which the earth andall the other planets revolve. THE COPERNICAN SYSTEM.
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1. The above cut is a representation of the Copernican Theory of the Solar System.In the center is seen the sun, in a state of rest. Around him, at unequal distances, arethe planets and fixed stars—the former revolving about him from west to east, or in thedirection of the arrows. The white circles represent the orbits, or paths, in which theplanets move around the sun. On the right is seen a comet plunging down into the sys-tem around the sun, and then departing. This is the Copernican Theory of the SolarSystem. O how unlike the complex works of man,Heavens easy, artless, unencumberd plan! 2. The truth of the Copernican theory is eatablished by the most conclusive and satis-factory evidence. Eclipses of the sun and moon are calculated upon this theory, andastronomers are able to predict thereby their commencement, duration, &c, to a minute,even hundreds of years before they occur. We shall therefore assume the truth of thissystem without further proof, as we proceed hereafter t

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