Abstract
WITH astonishing versatility the Rev. Dr. M. W Davidson turns from philosophy to give us this little volume on general astronomy. The reader who has no previous acquaintance with the subject can master the book without mental indigestion, and will leave it with a working knowledge of the elements of descriptive astronomy. The author gives an up-to-date account of our knowledge of the movements, dimensions, masses and compositions of the heavenly bodies without dealing with the identification of the constellations and individual stars. A few errors have been noted: among those which the student will find most puzzling are contradictory statements (pp. 55, 56) on the proportion of comets with retro grade motion, and a loose construction (p. 31) which makes it appear that solar eclipses which are not total are annular. In a section (p. 68) dealing with the transformation of mass into radiation, Dr. Davidson is betrayed into assuring his readers that “when we burn a piece of coal, the weight of its ashes and the smoke emitted is very nearly the same as the original weight of the coal”-surely a statement that would make Lavoisier turn in his grave ! But these are minor points which do not detract seriously from the merits of this authoritative presentation of the salient facts of astronomy in a form suited to the complete novice.
An Easy Outline of Astronomy
Dr.
M.
Davidson
By. (Thinker's Library, No. 95.) Pp. iv + 108 + 2 plates. (London: Watts and Co., Ltd., 1943.) 2s. 6d. net.
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H., A. An Easy Outline of Astronomy. Nature 152, 648 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/152648c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/152648c0