Half-hours with the Telescope Being a Popular Guide to the Use of the Telescope

by Richard A. Proctor

Half-hours with the Telescope Being a Popular Guide to the Use of the Telescope as a Means of Amusement and Instruction. by Richard A. (Richard Anthony) Proctor CHAPTER I. A HALF-HOUR ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE TELESCOPE. There are few instruments which yield more pleasure and instruction than the Telescope. Even a small telescope-only an inch and a half or two inches, perhaps, in aperture-will serve to supply profitable amusement to those who know how to apply its powers. I have often seen with pleasure the surprise with which the performance even of an opera-glass, well steadied, and directed towards certain parts of the heavens, has been witnessed by those who have supposed that nothing but an expensive and colossal telescope could afford any views of interest. But a well-constructed achromatic of two or three inches in aperture will not merely supply amusement and instruction, -it may be made to do useful work. The student of astronomy is often deterred from telescopic observation by the thought that in a field wherein so many have laboured, with abilities and means perhaps far surpassing those he may possess, he is little likely to reap results of any utility. He argues that, since the planets, stars, and nebul� have been scanned by Herschel and Rosse, with their gigantic mirrors, and at Pulkova and Greenwich with refractors whose construction has taxed to the utmost the ingenuity of the optician and mechanic, it must be utterly useless for an unpractised observer to direct a telescope of moderate power to the examination of these objects. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience

100 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1873

About the author

Richard Anthony Proctor (23 March 1837 in Chelsea, London – 12 September 1888) was an English astronomer.

He is best remembered for having produced one of the earliest maps of Mars in 1867 from 27 drawings by the English observer William Rutter Dawes.

His map was later superseded by those of Giovanni Schiaparelli and Eugène Antoniadi and his nomenclature was dropped (for instance, his "Kaiser Sea" became Syrtis Major Planum).

He used old drawings of Mars dating back to 1666 to try to determine the sidereal day of Mars. His final estimate, in 1873, was 24h 37m 22.713s, reasonably close to the modern value of 24h 37m 22.663s. Nevertheless, Frederik Kaiser's value of 24h 37m 22.622s is closer.

A crater on Mars is named after Proctor.

Reviews

[Roger Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published in 1873. So is it outdated? Well, there is a lot of astronomical knowledge available that was not available then. But most of that knowledge was acquired through giant telescopes in large observatories, radio telescopes, space telescopes and other means that backyard astronomers do not and never have had access to. Backyard astronomy has not really changed a whole lot in the last 148 years. Oh, there might be some advances like electrical devices that automatically rotate the telescope, but not much has changed in what can be seen from one's backyard nor the broad techniques used to see it. So, as an introduction to backyard astronomy, this 148 year old book retains value.