The stars

chwengjwendy Sat May 21, 2011 11:37 am

The starsThe stars are, many of them, visible by moonlight: and as these are fixed in the heavens, and their places known, we can ten accurately me nosition of tne moon at anv timp. hxr measunng her angular distance from any two of these. Setting off tnese distances on tne ceiestiai crioDe. ner exact mace on it will Ha known, and this being done from day to day. her path will be traced out. Her motion is so exceedingly rapid amongst the stars, that she may almost be seen to move among them; describing somewhat mom than half a degree every hour. She thus makes a complete circuit of the heavens in a mean or average period ofd h', called a periodical lunar month. During four or five days of each such period see is mvisioie: ana sue aiw&vs oecomes tnus invisible whm tier position m tne neavens is witmn an angular distance at &hnnt mr on either side of the sun : she first appears under the form of a slender crescent, or semicircle of light, aboutabove the western horizon at sunset: her angular points, or horns, are then turned towards the left of the spectator, her Tory Burch Shoes motion being eastward, at the rate of about " through the heavens m twentyfour hours. The sunset of the next evening finds her somewhere about further from the sun. who has moved in that period aboutm the same direction: thus her elevation above the western horizon at sunset is now about ; her crescent will be found, from a mere line of light, now to present the appearance of a lune, as it is termed, of considerable breadth, and in four or five days more, when she has attained a distance offrom the sun, and passes the meridian at sunset, the space between her horns will be filled up with light, and her disc will have Tory Burch Flats become a complete luminous semicircular area. She is then said to have completed her first quarter. As she still advances towards the east, this semicircle will swell into a figure whose edge is still a semicircle, but whose base is now an elliptic lune ; she is now said to be gibbous, and in her second quarter; this quarter she terminates, when her distance from the sun has Tory Burch Outlet increased to , and when she rises about sunset. Her disc is now a complete circle, and she is said to be at her full.