I. Further discussion of the sun-spot observations made at South Kensington. A report to the solar physics committee. Communicated to the Royal Society at the request of the committee

1890 ◽  
Vol 46 (280-285) ◽  
pp. 384-401
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Solar Physics ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Iron Nickel

I have previously reported the results of 700 observations of Sunspot spectra, extending from November, 1879, to August, 1885. The observations have been carried on continuously since the latter date, but, in consequence of the small number of spots which have been visible, the number of additional observations is only a little over 150. Last year very few observations could be made. The eighth hundred of observations dates from August, 1885, to August, 1887, and the first half of the ninth hundred from August, 1887, to February, 1888. As on former occasions, I give Tables A, B, C, showing the numbers of lines of iron, nickel, and titanium respectively which have been recorded amongst the most widened. Table D shows the results in the case of the lines which may at present be described as “ unknown lines.”

scholarly journals I. Researches on the spectra of meteorites. A report to the Solar Physics Committee. Communicated to the Royal Society at the request of the committee

1888 ◽  
Vol 43 (258-265) ◽  
pp. 117-156 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Solar Physics ◽  
Solar Spectrum ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Metallic Elements ◽  
Chemical Constitution

Some years ago I commenced a research on the spectra of carbon in connexion with certain lines I had detected in my early photographs of the solar spectrum. I have been going on with this work at intervals ever since, and certain conclusions to which it leads, emphasising the vast difference between the chemical constitution of the sun and of some stars, recently suggested the desirability of obtaining observations of the spectra of meteorites and of the metallic elements at as low a temperature as possible. I have latterly, therefore, been engaged on the last-named inquiries. The work already done, read in conjunction with that on carbon, seems to afford evidence which amounts to demonstration on several important points.

Obituary notices of fellows deceased

1874 ◽  
Vol 22 (148-155) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Spectrum Analysis ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Solar Physics ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
The World ◽  
Paternal Grandfather ◽  
Long Life ◽  
Geological Science ◽  
The University

Archibald Smith, only son of James Smith, of Jordanhill, Renfrewshire, was born on the 10th of August, 1813, at Greenhead, Glasgow, in the house where his mother’s father lived. His father, who also was a Fellow of the Royal Society, had literary and scientific tastes with a strongly practical turn, fostered no doubt by his education in the University of Glasgow and his family connexion with some of the chief founders of the great commercial community which has grown up by its side. In published works on various subjects he left enduring monuments of a long life of actively employed leisure. His discovery of different species of Arctic shells, in the course of several years dredging from his yacht, and his inference of a previously existing colder climate in the part of the world now occupied by the British Islands, constituted a remarkable and important advancement of Geological Science. In his 'Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul,’ a masterly application of the principles of practical seamanship renders St. Luke’s narrative more thoroughly intelligible to us now than it can have been to contemporary readers not aided by nautical knowledge. Later he published a ‘Dissertation on the Origin and Connexion of the Gospels;’ and he was engaged in the collection of further materials for the elucidation of the same subject up to the time of his death, at the age of eighty-five. Archibald Smith’s mother was also of a family distinguished for intellectual activity. Her paternal grandfather was Dr. Andrew Wilson, Professor of Astronomy in the University of Glasgow, whose speculations on the constitution of the sun are now generally accepted, especially since the discovery of spectrum-analysis and its application to solar physics. Her uncle, Dr. Patrick Wilson, who succeeded to his father’s Chair in the University, was author of papers in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ on Meteorology and on Aberration.

scholarly journals III. Total eclipse of the sun observed at Caroline Island, on 6th May, 1883

1889 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 119-135 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Solar Physics ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Solar Image ◽  
Total Eclipse ◽  
Previous Communication

Owing to the representations of the Committee on Solar Physics, who communicated with the Royal Society the desirability of observing this eclipse, an expedition was organised under the auspices of the latter body. The Council of the Royal Society having requested me to draw up a report on the Total Eclipse observed at Caroline Island, I undertook the task so far as relates to the results which were obtained with the same instruments which were employed in the observations of the Total Eclipse in Egypt in 1882. Two observers, Mr. H. Lawrance and Mr. C. R. Woods, who had both taken part in the Eclipse Expedition to Egypt as assistants to Professors Lockyer and Schuster, were entrusted with the arduous duty of making the observations. The expedition was devoted entirely to photographic work, the main object being to continue the photographic observations which had been carried on in Egypt, consisting of photographs of the corona taken on very rapid plates with varying exposure, photographs of the corona taken with a slitless spectroscope (the prismatic camera), and a photograph of the corona spectrum, the image of the moon and the corona being thrown on the slit cutting the diameter of the former. There is no occasion to describe the instruments which were employed for the first two classes of observations, as they have been fully described in the previous communication to the Royal Society by Professor Schuster and myself which appears in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ for 1884. The photographic spectroscope which was employed on this occasion differed in one detail, and in one detail only, in that the dispersion was doubled, two medium dense flint prisms of 62½° being employed instead of one prism of the same angle. The experience gained in Egypt seemed to show that, if the coronal light was equally bright in the two eclipses, the rapid plates used on both occasions would be amply adequate to secure photographs with the larger dispersion. Besides these observations several others were made, but did not meet with the success it was hoped they would have done. A photoheliograph, giving a 4-inch solar image, was attached to an equatorial mount, in addition to the wooden camera carrying a lens of 5 ft. 6 in. focus, with which the smaller-sized pictures of the corona were taken in Egypt. The pictures taken with the former though sufficiently exposed, showed that a large image could be utilised.

scholarly journals III. On some recent researches in solar physics, and a law regu­lating the time of duration of the sun-spot period

1872 ◽  
Vol 20 (130-138) ◽  
pp. 82-87
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Solar Physics ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Short Account ◽  
Constant Increase

1. In the short account of some recent investigations by Professor Wolf and M. Fritz on sun-spot phenomena, which has been published lately in the ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society' (1871, vol. xix. p. 392), it was pointed out that some of Wolf’s conclusions were not quite borne out by the results which we have given in our last paper on Solar Physics in the Philosophical Transactions for 1870, pp. 389-496. A closer inquiry into the cause of this discrepancy has led us to what appears a definite law, connecting numerically the two branches of the periodic sun-spot curve, viz. the time during which there is a regular diminution of spot-produc­tion, and the time during which there is a constant increase. It will be well, for the sake of clearness, to allude here again, as briefly as possible, to Professor Wolf’s results before stating those at which we have arrived.

scholarly journals The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

1984 ◽  
Vol 86 ◽  
pp. 155-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giancarlo Noci
Keyword(s):  
Solar Physics ◽  
Grazing Incidence ◽  
Spectral Irradiance ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Solar Dynamics Observatory ◽  
Solar Constant ◽  
Heliospheric Observatory ◽  
Explorer Mission ◽  
Solar Dynamics ◽  
Euv Spectrum

In the past years several space missions have been proposed for the study of the Sun and of the Heliosphere. These missions were intended to clarify various different aspects of solar physics. For example, the GRIST (Grazing Incidence Solar Telescope) mission was intended as a means to improve our knowledge of the upper transition region and low corona through the detection of the solar EUV spectrum with a spatial resolution larger than in previous missions; the DISCO (Dual Spectral Irradiance and Solar Constant Orbiter) and SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) missions were proposed to gat observational data about the solar oscillations better than those obtained from ground based instruments; the SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) mission was initially proposed to combine the properties of GRIST with the study of the extended corona (up to several radii of heliocentric distance) by observing the scattered Ly-alpha and OVI radiation, which was also the basis of the SCE (Solar Corona Explorer) mission proposal; the development of the interest about the variability of the Sun, both in itself and for its consequences in the history of the Earth, led to propose observations of the solar constant (included in DISCO).

scholarly journals I.—Secular Earth-Creep

1909 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 145-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. H. L. Schwarz
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Diurnal Variation ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Special Design ◽  
Important Paper ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Gravitational Pull ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Horizontal Pendulum

Dr. J. R. Sutton has recently read a most important paper to the Royal Society of South Africa on the diurnal variation of level at Kimberley. The paper gave the preliminary results of observations made during the course of three years upon the variation of the level of the ground as recorded by a large horizontal pendulum of a special design made for the author by the Cambridge Instrument Company. It appeared from the results that the movements in the surface of the ground, which set up corresponding movements in the pendulum, were very great. The maximum westerly elongation of the extremity of the pendulum occurred about 5.30 a.m., the maximum easterly about 4.15 p.m., the medium positions a little before 11 a.m. and 9.30 p.m. Geometrically these movements may be represented on the hypothesis that the hemisphere facing the sun bulges out, forming a sort of meniscus to the geosphere. The rise and fall of the surface of the ground which such a supposition would postulate is enormous, and the very magnitude has led Dr. Sutton to hesitate in giving the figures. There can, however, be very little doubt that some rise and fall in the earth's surface is occasioned by the sun's gravitational pull, although the present figures may have to be lessened by taking into consideration other causes which contribute to the disturbance of the pendulum.

scholarly journals XXXIV. On the transit of Venus in 1769. To the Right Honourable The Earl of Morton, President to the Council and Fellows of the Royal Society, this discourse is, with all humility, inscribed, by their humble servant, Thomas Hornsby

1765 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 326-344 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Theory Of Gravity ◽  
The Right ◽  
Made In

The observations of the late transit of Venus, though made with all possible care and accuracy, have not enabled us to determine with certainty the real quantity of the sun's parallax; since, by a comparison of the observations made in several parts of the globe, the sun's parallax is not less than 8" 1/2, nor does it seem to exceed 10". From the labours of those gentlemen, who have attempted to deduce this quantity from the theory of gravity, it should seem that the earth performs its annual revolution round the sun at a greater distance than is generally imagined: since Mr. Professor Stewart has determined the sun's parallax to be only 6', 9, and Mr. Mayer, the late celebrated Professor at Gottingen, who hath brought the lunar tables to a degree of perfection almost unexpected, is of opinion that it cannot exceed 8".

New Zealand, New Zealanders and the Royal Society

1994 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-281 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Society Islands ◽  
James Cook ◽  
Group Of Seven ◽  
New Zealand Flora ◽  
Natural Historian

On 5 May 1768 Lieutenant James Cook was chosen by the Admiralty to take command of a Royal Society expedition funded by George III on the ship Endeavour , the purpose being to sail to a suitable point (Tahiti) in the Southern Pacific from which to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun on 3 June 1769. It was thought that, by observing the transit from different points on Earth, it would be possible to determine the distance of the Earth from both Venus and the Sun. The Royal Society asked that Joseph Banks (then a young Fellow aged 25) and a group of seven be allowed to join. Among them were two artists, Alexander Buchan and Sydney Parkinson, who were employed to draw views and specimens of natural historical interest, and Daniel Carl Solander a distinguished Swedish natural historian. Banks’s enthusiasm ensured that the voyage was exceptionally well equipped to handle natural historical discoveries. Having observed the transit of Venus, Cook was secretly under orders from the Admiralty then to sail to 40° south in search of the supposed Great Southern Continent; if not encountered, he was then to head due west to find the east coast of New Zealand. Following these instructions, Cook arrived at New Zealand on 6 October 1769. He then initiated the first detailed geographical survey of New Zealand, and Banks and Solander began putting together their rich collections of New Zealand flora; Cook also observed the transit of Mercury in Mercury Bay. On his second voyage in 1772 Cook went further south, entered the Antarctic circle twice (to 71° 10' S) and ruled out the existence of a Great Southern Continent, and first defined Antarctica as we know it. He returned to London in 1775 to be promoted to Captain and elected to the Royal Society. Banks went on to be elected President in 1778, a post which he held for nearly 42 years. Three other ties between Cook and the Royal Society include the naming of the Society Islands after his sponsors, the testing of a new chronometer for them, and a report to the Society on scurvy, which was to have great consequences for the future health of seamen. The Royal Society was thus instrumental in making possible Cook’s voyages, the outcome of which was a set of pioneering geographical, botanical, geological and anthropological descriptions of New Zealand. Here we trace some aspects of the subsequent interactions between New Zealand and the Royal Society by outlining the careers of relevant Fellows, namely (a) those foreign-born Fellows (30 identified) who spent parts of their careers in New Zealand, and (b) those New Zealand-born scientists (34) who have been elected Fellows for their work, whether carried out in New Zealand or elsewhere.

scholarly journals XXVIII. On the discordances between the sun's observed and computed right ascensions, as determined at the Blackman-street observatory, in the years 1821 and 1822; with experiments to show that they did not originate in instrumental derangement. also a description of the seven-feet transit with which the observations were procured, and upon which the experiments were made

1826 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 423-483 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Accurate Knowledge ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Right Ascension ◽  
Solar Rays

In presenting to the Royal Society the following pages, I am well aware that some apology is necessary; the subject however to which they refer being intimately connected with the progress of astronomy, I am induced to hope that the Society will still receive with indulgence, what would long since have been communicated to them, had other astronomical pursuits allowed me the opportunity. That the sun's right ascension, found by observation , frequently disagrees with that afforded by calculation , astronomers I believe now generally admit; an opinion however has been as generally entertained, that the discordances were the results of instrumental inaccuracy, occasioned by the effects of the solar rays upon certain parts of the instrument; hence observations of the sun have fallen into disrepute, whenever an accurate knowledge of the time is the object of research.

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