The Story of the Heavens

A systematic, illustrated introduction to observational and theoretical astronomy that moves from the instruments and practices of the observatory to detailed accounts of the Sun, Moon, planets, minor planets, comets, and meteors, and then on to the stars, clusters, and nebulae. It explains orbital motion and gravitation, methods for measuring stellar distances and spectra, and discusses the physical constitution of stars, binary systems, and large-scale celestial structure. Later chapters treat precession, aberration, the role of heat in astronomy, and tidal phenomena, while numerous plates and diagrams clarify observational evidence and methods.