56, PATERNOSTER ROW; 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD; AND 164, PICCADILLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 154. h. 65. PREFACE. HE favour with which the articles and star-maps, entitled "The Midnight Sky at London," were originally received by the readers of the Leisure Hour, encouraged the Committee to re-issue them, with some additional astronomical papers, in a separate and more convenient form. In the arrangement of this work for the press, the author made a complete revision of every part, omitting many paragraphs which had reference only to the time of the serial publication, and adding much important matter which, in a permanent book on astronomy, should have a place. He not only re-wrote many portions of the text, but many familiar notes on the different members of the Solar System were added, including those on the Sun, the Earth, the Moon, Mercury, the Minor Planets, Uranus, Neptune, and Comets, none of which notes formed a part of the original papers. Considerable additions were also made in other parts of the work, especially in the chapter on "General Notes on the Fixed Stars." With regard to the star-maps, the author believes that, with the assistance of the corresponding index-maps, the student will experience but little difficulty in recognising the principal stars and constellations in the heavens. There may be a partial failure at first, but by persevering in a systematic comparison of the diagrams with the sky, any intelligent person will soon conquer whatever difficulty may arise. That many persons have succeeded in recognising the principal objects, by the use of the sky-views, has been proved by the numerous gratifying communications which the author has received from correspondents resident in all parts of Great Britain, Australia, the United States of America, and the Cape of Good Hope, during the monthly issue of the articles in the pages of the Leisure Hour, and especially since the publication of the first edition of "The Midnight Sky." The text in the present edition has undergone a complete revision, and several notes have been added, especially in the chapters on the Sun, Eclipses of the Sun, the Planets, and Nebulæ, for during the ten years which have clapsed since the publication of the first edition of this work, many important discoveries and researches have been made in almost every branch of astronomical knowledge. For much of this advance in |