Other editions of book Curiosities of the Sky

Curiosities of the Sky is a 1909 popular astronomy classic. by Garrett Putman Serviss who was an American astronomer and early science fiction writer. Any profits generated from the sale of this book will go towards the Freeriver Community project, a project designed to promote harmonious community living and well-being in the world. To learn more about the Freeriver project please visit the website - www.freerivercommunity.com

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

This book is an illustrated version of the original Curiosities of the Sky by Garrett Putman Serviss. “Some of the things described in this book are little known to the average reader, while others are well known; but all possess the fascination of whatever is strange, marvelous, obscure, or mysterious -- magnified, in this case, by the portentous scale of the phenomena. The idea of the author is to tell about these things in plain language, but with as much scientific accuracy as plain language will permit, showing the wonder that is in them without getting away from the facts. Most of them have hitherto been discussed only in technical form, and in treatises that the general public seldom sees and never reads.”

What Froude says of history is true also of astronomy: it is the most impressive where it transcends explanation. It is not the mathematics of astronomy, but the wonder and the mystery that seize upon the imagination. The calculation of an eclipse owes all its prestige to the sublimity of its data; the operation, in itself, requires no more mental effort than the preparation of a railway time-table. The dominion which astronomy has always held over the minds of men is akin to that of poetry; when the former becomes merely instructive and the latter purely didactic, both lose their power over the imagination.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

Curiosities of the Sky is a classic astronomy guide by Garrett Serviss. What Froude says of history is true also of astronomy: it is the most impressive when the Cosmos transcends explanation. It is not the mathematics of astronomy, but the wonder and the mystery that seize upon the imagination. The calculation of an eclipse owes all its prestige to the sublimity of its data; the operation, in itself, requires no more mental effort than the preparation of a railway time-table. Contents: The windows of absolute night -- Star-clouds, star-clusters, and star-streams -- Stellar migrations -- The passing of the constellations -- Conflagrations in the heavens -- Explosive and whirling nebulae -- The banners of the sun -- The zodiacal light mystery -- Marvels of the aurora -- Strange adventures of comets -- Meteors, fire-balls, and meteorites -- The wrecking of the moon -- The great Mars problem -- The riddle of the asteroids.

The idea of the author is to tell of Astronomy in plain language, but with as much scientific accuracy as plain language will permit, showing the wonder that is in them without getting away from the facts. Among the topics touched upon are: The strange unfixedness of the "fixed stars," the vast migrations of the suns and worlds constituting the universe; The slow passing out of existence of those collocations of stars which for thousands of years have formed famous "constellations," preserving the memory of mythological heroes and heroines, and perhaps of otherwise unrecorded history...