Crams Universal Atlas Geographical Astronomical And Historical PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 edition. Excerpt: ...is indicated, of which we should be sensible if we were nearer neighbors to them. In the sixteenth century, J ordano Bruno, an Italian, maintained that we are not warranted in supposing the stars to be all fixed in relation to each other, since their distance fror_n the earth is so immense as to render their motions insensible to us; and he remarked that it could only be decided after along course of observation, whether they revolved around each other, or what other movements they might have. Hooke, in the following century, surmised the improbability of the stars being absolutely fixed with respect to each other, and suggested that not only might these bodies be in a state of continual motion, but the whole solar system likewise. But Halley is the first person who, from observation, suspected the proper motion of the stars. In a paper of the year 1718, he stated, that since the days of the Alexandrian astronomers, the stars Aldebaran, Arcturus and Sirius, must have slowly advanced to the south. A few years later, J. Cassini demonstrated, by the most conclusive evidence, that Arcturus had sensibly shifted in latitude since the time of Tycho Brahe. Bradley soon afterwards remarked, that the apparent motions of the stars might arise either from a movement of the solai' system in space, or from a real change in the positions of the stars themselves; but he avowed the opinion, that many ages must elapse before it would be possible to come to a definite conclusion on the subject. In 1750, the remarkable " Theory of the Universe," published by Wright, assumed the motion of the solar system in space, as well as that of all the stars of the firmament. At last, in 1783, Herschel addressed himself to the resolution of the great...