Occultations of Stars and Solar Eclipses

Abstract

THE first edition of this book was published in the year 1869, but in the present issue Mr. Penrose has not only simplified and condensed the work contained in it, but has extended it in that portion which relates chiefly to total solar eclipses. Most of us are familiar with the importance of determining one's position on the earth's surface, especially when on the ocean or on land far removed from the privileges of civilisation, and any attempt, either by a graphical or computational process, to facilitate this object is very welcome both to navigators and travellers. In this book Mr. Penrose treats the methods of predicting such phenomena as occultations of stars and eclipses of the sun by graphical construction, and he adds more rigorous methods of reduction for the accurate calculation of longitude. The very full explanation of the principle involved, the details of the working out of each case in point, the tables to facilitate the necessary computations, and the skeleton forms for actual practice, will all be found sufficiently clear to enable the worker to understand the practical use of the method.

Occultations of Stars and Solar Eclipses.

By Francis Cranmer Penrose. Second edition. Pp. viii + 36. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd, 1902.) Price 12s. 6d. net.