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                                  THE
                              STORY OF THE
                              SOLAR SYSTEM


                                   BY
                      GEORGE F. CHAMBERS, F.R.A.S.
                 OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW
                    AUTHOR OF THE STORY OF THE STARS

[Illustration: ]

                    WITH TWENTY-EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS

                                NEW YORK
                        McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.
                                 MCMIV


                            Copyright, 1895,
                      By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.--The Planet Saturn.]




                                PREFACE.


Having in my "Story of the Stars" told of far distant suns, many of them
probably with planets revolving around them, I have in the present
volume, which is a companion to the former one, to treat of the Sun in
particular--our Sun as we may call him--and the body of attendants which
own his sway by revolving round him. The attendants are the planets,
commonly so called, together with a certain number of comets. I shall
deal with all these objects rather from a descriptive and practical than
from a speculative or essay point of view, and with special reference to
the convenience and opportunities of persons possessing, or having
access to, what may be called popular telescopes--telescopes say of from
two to four inches of aperture, and costing any sum between L10 and L50.
There is much pleasure and profit to be got out of telescopes of this
type, always presuming that they are used by persons possessed of
patience and perseverance. It is a very great mistake, though an
extremely common one, to suppose that unless a man can command a big
telescope he can do no useful work, and derive no pleasure from his
work. To all such croakers I always point as a moral the achievements of
Hermann Goldschmidt, who from an attic window at Fontenay-aux-Roses near
Paris, with a telescope of only 2-1/2 inches aperture, discovered no
fewer than 14 minor planets.

As this volume is intended for general reading, rather than for
educational or technical purposes, I have kept statistical details and
numerical expressions within very narrow limits, mere figures being
always more or less unattractive.

John Richard Green, in the Preface to his book on _The Making of
England_, writes as follows:--"I may add, in explanation of the
reappearance of a few passages... which my readers may have seen
before, that where I had little or nothing to add or to change, I have
preferred to insert a passage from previous work, with the requisite
connections and references, to the affectation of rewriting such a
passage for the mere sake of giving it an air of novelty." I will
venture to adopt this thought as my own, and to apply it to the
repetition, here and there, of ideas and phrases which are already to be
found in my _Handbook of Astronomy_.

                                                                G. F. C.
  Northfield Grange,
    Eastbourne, 1895.




                               CONTENTS.


  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
  I. Introductory Statement                                            7
  II. The Sun                                                         18
  III. Mercury                                                        57
  IV. Venus                                                           61
  V. The Earth                                                        69
  VI. The Moon                                                        89
  VII. Mars                                                          100
  VIII. The Minor Planets                                            110
  IX. Jupiter                                                        115
  X. Saturn                                                          122
  XI. Uranus                                                         138
  XII. Neptune                                                       143
  XIII. Comets                                                       150
  Appendix--Tables of the Solar System                               182
  General Index                                                      185




                         LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


  FIGURE                                                            PAGE
  1. The Planet Saturn                                    _Frontispiece_
  2. Inclination of Planetary Orbits                                   9
  3. Comparative Sizes of Major Planets                               11
  4. Comparative Size of the Sun as seen from the Planets Named       17
  5. Ordinary Sun-spots, June 22, 1885                                22
  6. Change of Form in Sun-spots Owing to the Sun's Rotation          29
  7. Sun-spots seen as a Notch                                        37
  8. The Sun Totally Eclipsed, July 18, 1860                          56
  9. Venus, Dec. 23, 1885                                             64
  10. Venus Near Conjunction as a Thin Crescent                       65
  11. Mare Crisium (Lick Observatory photographs)                     90
  12. Four Views of Mars (Barnard)                                   101
  13. Mars, Aug. 27, 1892 (Guyot)                                    107
  14. Jupiter, Nov. 27, 1857 (Dawes)                                 116
  15. Saturn, 1889                                                   123
  16. General View of the Phases of Saturn's Rings                   126
  17. Phases of Saturn's Rings at Specified Dates                    129
  18. Saturn with Titan and its Shadow                               137
  19. Telescopic Comet with a Nucleus                                154
  20. Comet seen in Daylight, Sept., 1882                            155
  21. Quenisset's Comet, July 9, 1893                                156
  22. Holmes's Comet, the Head on Nov. 9, 1892 (_Denning_)           159
  23. Holmes's Comet, the Head on Nov. 16, 1892 (_Denning_)          159
  24. Comet III. of 1862, on Aug. 22, showing Jet of Luminous Matter
