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Jean-Baptiste Chappe D'Auteroche
Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche (; 23 March 1722 – 1 August 1769) was a French astronomer, best known for his observations of the Transit of Venus, transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769. Early life Little is known of Chappe's early life. He was born into a distinguished family holding administrative posts and coming from Auvergne (province), Auvergne, a region of central France. He entered the priesthood, probably as a Society of Jesus, Jesuit, and devoted himself to the study of astronomy. He was appointed assistant astronomer at the Paris Observatory, Royal Observatory and admitted to the French Academy of Sciences, Royal Academy of Sciences on 14 January 1759. Distance from the Earth to the Sun In the mid-18th century, the Celestial dynamics, dynamics of the Solar System were reasonably well understood, but astronomers only had an approximate idea of its scale. If the distance between two planets could be measured, all the other distances would be known from Kepler's laws of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mauriac, Cantal
Mauriac (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Cantal Departments of France, department in the Auvergne (region), Auvergne Regions of France, region in south-central France. It lies north-northwest of Aurillac by rail. Mauriac, built on the slope of a volcanic hill, has a medieval church, and the buildings of an old abbey now used as public offices and dwellings; the town owes its origin to the abbey, which originated from a 6th-century foundation. Geography Mauriac is situated in the northwest of Cantal, close to the border with the Corrèze and Limousin (region), Limousin departments. The greater part of the Mauriac arrondissement is watered by the Saint-Jean, a brook which flows past the southwestern edge of the town and fills the lac du Val Saint-Jean, a small reservoir, before flowing into Auze (Dordogne), Auze, an important tributary of the Dordogne (river), Dordogne. Mauriac is in hilly terrain, with the main populated area falling into a zone at an altitude ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia versus Kingdom of France, France and Habsburg monarchy, Austria, the respective coalitions receiving by countries including Portuguese Empire, Portugal, Spanish Empire, Spain, Electorate of Saxony, Saxony, Age of Liberty, Sweden, and Russian Empire, Russia. Related conflicts include the Third Silesian War, French and Indian War, Carnatic wars, Third Carnatic War, Anglo-Spanish War (1762–1763), Anglo-Spanish War (1762–1763), and Spanish–Portuguese War (1762–1763), Spanish–Portuguese War. Although the War of the Austrian Succession ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), none of the signatories were happy with the terms, and it was generally viewed as a temporary armistice. It led to a strategic realignment kn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre Larousse
Pierre Athanase Larousse (; 23 October 18173 January 1875) was a French grammarian, lexicographer and encyclopaedist. He published many of the outstanding educational and reference works of 19th-century France, including the 15-volume . Early life Pierre Larousse was born in Toucy, where his father was a blacksmith. At the age of sixteen he won a scholarship at the teaching school in Versailles. Four years later, he returned to Toucy to teach in a primary school, but became frustrated by the archaic and rigid teaching methods. In 1840 he moved to Paris to improve his own education by taking free courses. Career From 1848 to 1851, Larousse taught at a private boarding school, where he met his future wife, Suzanne Caubel (although they did not marry until 1872). Together, in 1849, they published a French language course for children. In 1851 he met Augustin Boyer, another disillusioned ex-teacher, and together they founded the ''Librairie Larousse et Boyer'' (Larousse and Boye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grand Dictionnaire Universel Du XIXe Siècle
The (, ''Great Universal Dictionary of the 19th Century''), often called the (), is a French encyclopedic dictionary. It was planned, directed, published, and to a substantial degree written by Pierre Larousse, though he also relied on anonymous fellow contributors and though he died in 1875, before its completion. The publication of the ''Grand dictionnaire universel'' in 15 volumes of 1500 pages extended from 1866 to 1876. Two supplements were published in 1877 and 1890. Description Volumes 1–15, covering A–Z, were issued from 1866 to 1876. A supplement (Volume 16) was published in 1877, and a second supplement (Volume 17), in 1890.Sevol. 17, pp. 2023–2024 The Larousse firm also published further supplements in the form of a magazine called ''Revue encyclopédique'' (1891–1900) then ''Revue universelle'' (1900–1905). Unlike Émile Littré's contemporary dictionary, the ''Grand Larousse'' is primarily an encyclopedia. It is opinionated and has a distinctive and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the Saint Petersburg metropolitan area, metropolitan area. Saint Petersburg is the List of European cities by population within city limits, fourth-most populous city in Europe, the List of cities and towns around the Baltic Sea, most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's List of northernmost items#Cities and settlements, northernmost city of more than 1 million residents. As the former capital of the Russian Empire, and a Ports of the Baltic Sea, historically strategic port, it is governed as a Federal cities of Russia, federal city. The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cossacks
The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic languages, East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borders of Ukraine and Russia, Cossack raids, countering the Crimean-Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe, Crimean-Nogai raids, alongside economically developing steppes, steppe regions north of the Black Sea and around the Azov Sea. Historically, they were a semi-nomadic and semi-militarized people, who, while under the nominal suzerainty of various Eastern European states at the time, were allowed a great degree of self-governance in exchange for military service. Although numerous linguistic and religious groups came together to form the Cossacks, most of them coalesced and became East Slavic languages, East Slavic–speaking Eastern Orthodox Church, Orthodox Christians. The rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russian Empire en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Irtysh River
The Irtysh is a river in Russia, China, and Kazakhstan. It is the chief tributary of the Ob and is also the longest tributary in the world. The river's source lies in the Mongolian Altai in Dzungaria (the northern part of Xinjiang, China) close to the border with Mongolia. The Irtysh's main tributaries include the Tobol, Demyanka and the Ishim. The Ob-Irtysh system forms a major drainage basin in Asia, encompassing most of Western Siberia and the Altai Mountains. Geography From its origins as the ''Kara-Irtysh'' (Black Irtysh) in the Mongolian Altay mountains in Xinjiang, China, the Irtysh flows northwest through Lake Zaysan in Kazakhstan, meeting the Ishim and Tobol rivers before merging with the Ob near Khanty-Mansiysk in western Siberia, Russia after . The name Black Irtysh (''Kara-Irtysh'' in Kazakh, or ''Cherny Irtysh'' in Russian) is applied by some authors, especially in Russia and Kazakhstan, to the upper course of the river, from its source entering Lake ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tobol River
The Tobol (, ) is a river in Western Siberia (in Kazakhstan and Russia) and the main (left) tributary of the Irtysh. Its length is , and the area of its drainage basin is . History The Tobol River was one of the four important rivers of the Siberia Khanate. In 1428 the khan was killed in a battle with the forces of Abu'l-Khayr Khan at the Battle of Tobol. In the 16th century, the Tobol was the eastern terminus of the portage route leading westward to the rivers Vishera and Kama. Cities and towns on the Tobol * Lisakovsk in Kazakhstan * Rudni in Kazakhstan * Kostanay (formerly Nikolaevsk) in Kazakhstan * Kurgan in the Russian Federation * Yalutorovsk in the Russian Federation * Tobolsk in the Russian Federation, where the Tobol joins the Irtysh Main tributaries The largest tributaries of the Tobol are, from source to mouth: * Syntasty (left) * Ayat (left) * Uy (left) * Ubagan (right) * Iset (left) * Tura (left) * Tavda (left) References Rivers of K ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longitude
Longitude (, ) is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east- west position of a point on the surface of the Earth, or another celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter lambda (λ). Meridians are imaginary semicircular lines running from pole to pole that connect points with the same longitude. The prime meridian defines 0° longitude; by convention the International Reference Meridian for the Earth passes near the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, south-east London on the island of Great Britain. Positive longitudes are east of the prime meridian, and negative ones are west. Because of the Earth's rotation, there is a close connection between longitude and time measurement. Scientifically precise local time varies with longitude: a difference of 15° longitude corresponds to a one-hour difference in local time, due to the differing position in relation to the Sun. Comparing local time to an absol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lunar Eclipse
A lunar eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, when the Moon's orbital plane is closest to Ecliptic, the plane of the Earth's orbit. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are exactly or very closely aligned (in syzygy (astronomy), syzygy) with Earth between the other two, which can happen only on the night of a full moon when the Moon is near either lunar node. The type and length of a lunar eclipse depend on the Moon's proximity to the lunar node. When the Moon is totally eclipsed by the Earth (a "deep eclipse"), "What is a deep eclipse? The smaller star is behind the bigger star" it takes on a reddish color that is caused by the planet when it completely blocks direct sunlight from reaching the Moon's surface, as the only light that is diffuse reflection, reflected from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transit Of Venus
A transit of Venus takes place when Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth (or any other superior planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Venus is visible as a small black circle moving across the face of the Sun. Transits of Venus reoccur periodically. A pair of transits takes place eight years apart in December (Gregorian calendar) followed by a gap of 121.5 years, before another pair occurs eight years apart in June, followed by another gap, of 105.5 years. The dates advance by about two days per 243-year cycle. The periodicity is a reflection of the fact that the orbital periods of Earth and Venus are close to 8:13 and 243:395 commensurabilities. The last pairs of transits occurred on 8 June 2004 and 5–6 June 2012. The next pair of transits will occur on 10–11 December 2117 and 8 December 2125. Transits of Venus were in the past used to determine the size of the Solar System. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states since the lengthy conquest of Siberia, which began with the fall of the Khanate of Sibir in 1582 and concluded with the annexation of Chukotka in 1778. Siberia is vast and sparsely populated, covering an area of over , but home to roughly a quarter of Russia's population. Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, and Omsk are the largest cities in the area. Because Siberia is a geographic and historic concept and not a political entity, there is no single precise definition of its territorial borders. Traditionally, Siberia spans the entire expanse of land from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, with the Ural River usually forming the southernmost portion of its western boundary, and includes most of the drainage basin of the Arctic Ocean. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
