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Popular Astronomy

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Popular Astronomy
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Simon Newcomb
SeriesCambridge Library Collection - Astronomy
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:598
Dimensions(mm): Height 216,Width 140
Category/GenreAstronomy, space and time
Popular astronomy and space
ISBN/Barcode 9781108037730
ClassificationsDewey:520
Audience
Professional & Vocational
Illustrations 5 Plates, black and white; 112 Halftones, unspecified

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 24 October 2011
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Furnished with more than a hundred figures, maps and tables, this book was first published in 1878 by Simon Newcomb (1835-1909), a noted mathematician and professor at the United States Naval Observatory. A meticulous work, originally intended to be of use to the general reader as well as the student, it provides a view of astronomy as it stood on the eve of General Relativity, and inevitably includes some theories which have since been disproved. Newcomb outlines a brief history of astronomy, from ancient Greece (when the planets were thought to be fixed in crystal spheres), to the application of the new laws of thermodynamics and the latest observations of the solar system. Included are a rejection of the then prevalent theory that the sun has a cool interior and its own inhabitants, details of the anomaly of Mercury's orbit according to Newtonian theory, and thorough observational guides.