A HIGH-SCHOOL ASTRONOMY: IN WHICH THE DESCRIPTIVE, PHYSICAL, AND PRACTICAL . ARE COMBINED, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE WANTS OF ACADEMIES AND SEMINARIES OF LEARNING. BY HIRAM MATTISON, A. M., LATE PROFESSOR OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY AND ASTRONOMY IN THE FALLEY NEW YORK: F. J. HUNTINGTON, AND MASON BROTHERS, 1856. ARVARD 0172 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, BY HIRAM MATTISON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southera District of New York. PREFACE. THE design of this work is to furnish a suitable text-book of Astronomy for academies and seminaries of learning. Though substantially a revised edition of the "Elementary Astronomy," so extensive and important have been the additions and improvements, as to justify the adoption of a new title, and to warrant the hope that it will not only be found eminently suited to its purpose, but that it may now go on for years without further revision or alteration. For juvenile learners, the " Primary Astronomy" may be preferred; and for advanced classes, who wish to study the constellations in connection with Mythology, the "Geography of the Heavens" should be chosen in preference to all others; but for all ordinary students, this intermediate work will be found sufficiently elementary on the one hand, and sufficiently extended on the other. The work is now divided in three parts. After an Introduction, which consists of Preliminary Observations and Definitions, and occupies twenty pages, Part First is devoted to the Solar System-the sun, planets, comets, eclipses, tides, &c.; Part Second relates to the Sidereal Heavens the fixed stars, constellations, clusters, and nebulæ; and Part Third to Practical Astronomy-the structure and use of instruments, refraction, parallax, &c. This department, so seldom introduced into text-books for schools, will be found especially interesting and valuable. Besides embracing all the late discoveries in astronomy, under a strictly philosophical classification, the work is now thoroughly illustrated, by the introduction of diagrams into the pages, in connection with the text; and the adaptation throughout to the use of the blackboard, during recitation, cannot fail to be appreciated by every practical teacher. The variety of type affords an agreeable relief to the eye of the student, and at the same time distinguishes the main text (which ought, in all cases, to be thoroughly understood before it is passed) from the less important matter, the more careful study of which may be left for a review. The suggestive topical questions at the bottom of the page complete the design. On the whole, the work is believed to be a decided improvement upon the works heretofore in use in this department of study; and as such it is offered to the professional teachers of the country. New York, Jan. 1, 1853. |