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Robert S. (Robert Stawell) Ball
Robert Stawell Ball (1840–1913) was an Irish astronomer and mathematician known for his contributions to astronomy and popular science writing. He served as the Royal Astronomer of Ireland and later became the Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry at Cambridge University. Among his notable works are "The Story of the Heavens" and "The Cause of an Ice Age," both of which helped to make complex scientific ideas accessible to the public. Ball also made important contributions to the field of kinematics, particularly in the study of screw theory.
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LECTURE I. It is my privilege to address you this afternoon on a subject in which science and poetry are blended in a happy conjunction. If there be a peculiar fascination about the earlier chapters of any branch of history, how great must be the interest which attaches to that most primeval of all terrestrial histories which relates to the actual beginnings of this globe on which we stand. In our...
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Of all the natural sciences there is not one which offers such sublime objects to the attention of the inquirer as does the science of astronomy. From the earliest ages the study of the stars has exercised the same fascination as it possesses at the present day. Among the most primitive peoples, the movements of the sun, the moon, and the stars commanded attention from their supposed influence on human...
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CHAPTER I. THE ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY. Early Astronomical Observations—The Observatory of Tycho Brahe—The Pupil of the Eye—Vision of Faint Objects—The Telescope—The Object-Glass—Advantages of Large Telescopes—The Equatorial—The Observatory—The Power of a Telescope—Reflecting Telescopes—Lord Rosse's Great Reflector at Parsonstown—How the mighty Telescope is...
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