02699cam a22003373u 450000100060000000300070000600500170001300600020003000700050003200800410003701000150007804000110009304100170010405000070012110000370012824500280016526400510019330000470024433600260029133700260031733800360034349000310037950000310041050800930044152016270053453400650216165300140222670000470224083000310228785600430231878112UtSlPG20260610134818.0mcr n260607r20261925utu|||||o|||||||||||||| d  a2004564085  aUtSlPG 7aen2iso639-1 4aQB1 aCarrington, Hereward,d1880-195910aAstronomy for beginners 1aSalt Lake City, UT :bProject Gutenberg,c2026  a1 online resource :bmultiple file formats  atextbtxt2rdacontent  acomputerbc2rdamedia  aonline resourcebcr2rdacarrier1 aLittle blue book ; no. 895  aRelease date is 2026-03-04  aTim Miller, chenzw, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net  aAstronomy for beginners by Hereward Carrington is a compact popular-science primer written in the early 20th century. It offers a clear, accessible introduction to astronomy for lay readers, outlining how the cosmos works and how we study it.

The book opens by separating astronomy from astrology, then tours the solar system: the Sun (its layers, spots, and influence), each planet from Mercury to Neptune (with notes on moons, rings, atmospheres, and habitability), the minor planets, and the Moon’s features, phases, and origin. It surveys theories of solar-system formation (from Laplace to the planetesimal hypothesis), maps the sky’s constellations, and explains meteors, meteorites, comets, nebulae, and the Milky Way. Carrington summarizes stellar facts—numbers, distances (light-years), motions, temperatures, and types (fixed, double, colored, variable, temporary), plus star clusters. He describes eclipses, transits, and occultations, and introduces the tools that revolutionized astronomy—telescopes, spectroscopy, and photography. Core physical ideas follow: tides, gravitation, the ether (as then conceived), and atomic analogies; alongside atmospheric and geophysical topics such as lightning, fireballs, magnetism, and the aurora. Practical matters—measuring time and space, the International Date Line, calendars—lead to brief notes on curved space, the darkness and cold of interstellar space, prospects for life beyond Earth, possible causes of ice ages, why stars twinkle, the Moon’s size illusion, and a closing set of concise definitions. (This is an automatically generated summary.)  pOriginally published:cGirard: Haldeman-Julius Company, 1925  aAstronomy1 aHaldeman-Julius, E.q(Emanuel),d1888-1951 0aLittle blue book ; no. 89540uhttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78112