The Heat and Brightness of the Sun—Further Benefits that we receive from the Sun—The Distance of the Sun—How Astronomers measure the Distances of the Heavenly Bodies—The Apparent Smallness of Distant Objects—The Shape and Size of the Sun—The Spots on the Sun—Appearances seen during a Total Eclipse of the Sun—Night and Day—The Daily Rotation of the Earth—The Annual Motion of the Earth round the Sun—The Changes of the Seasons—Sunshine at the North Pole
The Phases of our Attendant the Moon—The Size of the Moon—How Eclipses are produced—Effect of the Moon’s Distance on its Appearance—A Talk about Telescopes—How the Telescope aids us in Viewing the Moon—Telescopic Views of the Lunar Scenery—On the Origin of the Lunar Craters—The Movements of the Moon—On the Possibility of Life in the Moon
Mercury, Venus, and Mars—How to make a Drawing of our System—The Planet Mercury—The Planet Venus—The Transit of Venus—Venus as a World—The Planet Mars and his Movements—The Ellipse—The Discoveries made by Tycho and Kepler—The Discoveries made by Newton—The Geography of Mars—The Satellites of Mars—How the Telescope aids in Viewing Faint Objects—The Asteroids, or Small Planets
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune—Jupiter—The Satellites of Jupiter—Saturn—The Nature of the Rings—William Herschel—The Discovery of Uranus—The Satellites of Uranus—The Discovery of Neptune
The Movements of a Comet—Encke’s Comet—The Great Comet of Halley—How the Telegraph is used for Comets—The Parabola—The Materials of a Comet—Meteors—What becomes of the Shooting Stars—Grand Meteors—The Great November Showers—Other Great Showers—Meteorites
We try to make a Map—The Stars are Suns—The Numbers of the Stars—The Clusters of Stars—The Rank of the Earth as a Globe in Space—The Distances of the Stars—The Brightness and Color of Stars—Double Stars—How we find what the Stars are made of—The NebulÆ—What the NebulÆ are made of—Photographing the NebulÆ—Conclusion
