Almost equal surprise is excited by
the tardiness of observation of the nebulous spots in Andromeda and Orion,
first described by Simon Marius and Huygens. The earliest explicit
descriptions of the zodiacal light occurs in Childrey's 'Britannia
Baconica',* in the year 1661.
p 139
[footnote] *"There is another thing which I recommend to the observation of
mathematical men, which is that in February, and for a little before and a
little after that month (as I have observed several years together), about
six in the evening, when the twilight hath almost deserted the horizon, you
shall see a plainly discernible way of the twilight striking up toward the
Pleiades, and seeming almost to touch them. It is so observed any clear
night, but it is best illac nocte. There is no such way to be observed at
any other time of the year (that I can perceive), nor any other way at that
time to be perceived darting up elsewhere; and I believe it hath been, and
will be constantly visible at that time of the year; but what the cause of
it in nature should be, I can not yet imagine, but leave it to future
inquiry." (Childrey, 'Britannia Baconica', 1661, p. 183.) This is the
first view and a simple description of the phenomenon. (Cassini,
'D??couverte de la Lumi dfd ??leste qui paro?”t dans le Zodiaque', in the
'M??m.
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