Great Astronomers | Page 4

URANIBORG, ISLAND OF HVEN.
EFFIGY ON TYCHO'S TOMB AT PRAGUE. By Permission of
Messrs. A. & C. Black.
TYCHO'S MURAL QUADRANT, URANIBORG.
GALILEO'S PENDULUM.
GALILEO.
THE VILLA ARCETRI.

FACSIMILE SKETCH OF LUNAR SURFACE BY GALILEO.
CREST OF GALILEO'S FAMILY.
KEPLER'S SYSTEM OF REGULAR SOLIDS.
KEPLER.
SYMBOLICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE PLANETARY
SYSTEM.
THE COMMEMORATION OF THE RUDOLPHINE TABLES.
WOOLSTHORPE MANOR.
TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.
DIAGRAM OF A SUNBEAM.
ISAAC NEWTON.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S LITTLE REFLECTOR.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S SUN-DIAL.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S TELESCOPE.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S ASTROLABE.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S SUN-DIAL IN THE ROYAL SOCIETY.
FLAMSTEED'S HOUSE.
FLAMSTEED.
HALLEY.
GREENWICH OBSERVATORY IN HALLEY'S TIME.
7, NEW KING STREET, BATH. From a Photograph by John Poole,

Bath.
WILLIAM HERSCHEL.
CAROLINE HERSCHEL.
STREET VIEW, HERSCHEL HOUSE, SLOUGH. From a Photograph
by Hill & Saunders, Eton.
GARDEN VIEW, HERSCHEL HOUSE, SLOUGH. From a
Photograph by Hill & Saunders, Eton.
OBSERVATORY, HERSCHEL HOUSE, SLOUGH. From a
Photograph by Hill & Saunders, Eton.
THE 40-FOOT TELESCOPE, HERSCHEL HOUSE, SLOUGH. From
a Photograph by Hill & Saunders, Eton.
LAPLACE.
THE OBSERVATORY, DUNSINK. From a Photograph by W.
Lawrence, Dublin.
ASTRONOMETER MADE BY SIR JOHN HERSCHEL.
SIR JOHN HERSCHEL.
NEBULA IN SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.
THE CLUSTER IN THE CENTAUR.
OBSERVATORY AT FELDHAUSEN.
GRANITE COLUMN AT FELDHAUSEN.
THE EARL OF ROSSE.
BIRR CASTLE. From a Photograph by W. Lawrence, Dublin.

THE MALL, PARSONSTOWN. From a Photograph by W. Lawrence,
Dublin.
LORD ROSSE'S TELESCOPE. From a Photograph by W. Lawrence,
Dublin.
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, PARSONSTOWN. From a
Photograph by W. Lawrence, Dublin.
AIRY. From a Photograph by E.P. Adams, Greenwich.
HAMILTON.
ADAMS.
THE OBSERVATORY, CAMBRIDGE.

INTRODUCTION.

Of all the natural sciences there is not one which offers such sublime
objects to the attention of the inquirer as does the science of astronomy.
From the earliest ages the study of the stars has exercised the same
fascination as it possesses at the present day. Among the most primitive
peoples, the movements of the sun, the moon, and the stars commanded
attention from their supposed influence on human affairs.
The practical utilities of astronomy were also obvious in primeval times.
Maxims of extreme antiquity show how the avocations of the
husbandman are to be guided by the movements of the heavenly bodies.
The positions of the stars indicated the time to plough, and the time to
sow. To the mariner who was seeking a way across the trackless ocean,
the heavenly bodies offered the only reliable marks by which his path
could be guided. There was, accordingly, a stimulus both from
intellectual curiosity and from practical necessity to follow the
movements of the stars. Thus began a search for the causes of the

ever-varying phenomena which the heavens display.
Many of the earliest discoveries are indeed prehistoric. The great
diurnal movement of the heavens, and the annual revolution of the sun,
seem to have been known in times far more ancient than those to which
any human monuments can be referred. The acuteness of the early
observers enabled them to single out the more important of the
wanderers which we now call planets. They saw that the star-like
objects, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars, with the more conspicuous Venus,
constituted a class of bodies wholly distinct from the fixed stars among
which their movements lay, and to which they bear such a superficial
resemblance. But the penetration of the early astronomers went even
further, for they recognized that Mercury also belongs to the same
group, though this particular object is seen so rarely. It would seem that
eclipses and other phenomena were observed at Babylon from a very
remote period, while the most ancient records of celestial observations
that we possess are to be found in the Chinese annals.
The study of astronomy, in the sense in which we understand the word,
may be said to have commenced under the reign of the Ptolemies at
Alexandria. The most famous name in the science of this period is that
of Hipparchus who lived and worked at Rhodes about the year 160BC.
It was his splendid investigations that first wrought the observed facts
into a coherent branch of knowledge. He recognized the primary
obligation which lies on the student of the heavens to compile as
complete an inventory as possible of the objects which are there to be
found. Hipparchus accordingly commenced by undertaking, on a small
scale, a task exactly similar to that on which modern astronomers, with
all available appliances of meridian circles, and photographic
telescopes, are constantly engaged at the present day. He compiled a
catalogue of the principal fixed stars, which is of special value to
astronomers, as being the earliest work of its kind which has been
handed down. He also studied the movements of the sun and the moon,
and framed theories to account for the incessant changes which he saw
in progress.