The Story of the Heavens

Published in 1885, this beautifully illustrated volume provides detailed descriptions and facts about the solar system and its surroundings.

Robert S. Ball (Author)

9781108014144, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 August 2010

608 pages, 103 b/w illus. 3 colour illus.
21.6 x 14 x 3.4 cm, 0.76 kg

An Irish astronomer and talented mathematician, Sir Robert Stawell Ball (1840–1913) was also a prolific writer of popular astronomy. As a young man, Ball conducted observations of nebulae using Lord Rosse's telescope – at the time the largest in the world. His Story of the Heavens displays the same fascination with the beauties and mysteries of the sky, providing a detailed survey of the history and contemporary situation of the solar system, and speculating about the possibility of life on other planets. Originally published in 1885, when Ball was Andrews Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin and Royal Astronomer of Ireland, this beautifully illustrated volume covers all eight planets, the Sun, as well as double stars, distant suns, comets, and the Milky Way. Extremely popular in its time, this book remains relevant today for its historical account of astronomy as a science.

Introduction
1. The astronomical observatory
2. The Sun
3. The Moon
4. The solar system
5. The law of gravitation
6. The planet of romance
7. Mercury
8. Venus
9. The Earth
10. Mars
11. The minor planets
12. Jupiter
13. Saturn
14. Uranus
15. Neptune
16. Comets
17. Shooting stars
18. The starry heavens
19. The distant suns
20. Double stars
21. The distances of the stars
22. The spectroscope
23. Star clusters and nebulae
24. The precession and nutation of the earth's axis
25. The aberration of light
26. The astronomical significance of heat
27. The tides
Appendix
Index.

Subject Areas: Solar system: the Sun & planets [PGS]