ASTKONOMY. 5 



Lord Lindsay's discovery is, according to Mr. Christie, of 

 Greenwich, "confirmed by an examination of drawings of 

 the spectrum of this star at five epochs between 1S76, Dec. 

 8, and 1877, March 2, given by Dr. Vogel in a paper sum- 

 marizing his own observations as well as those of other ob- 

 servers. Though in themselves these are not sufficient to 

 indicate the conversion to a nebula, they acquire great im- 

 portance in the light of the Dun-Echt observation, for they 

 show clearly the progressive fading out, not only of the 

 continuous spectrum, but also of the hydrogen and other 

 bright lines." 



This new star in Cygnus has been the subject of observa- 

 tion by Cornu, Copeland, and Yogel by means of the spec- 

 troscope ; and from all the observations it is plain that the 

 hydrogen lines at first prominent have gradually faded. 

 With the decrease in their brilliancy, a line corresponding 

 in position with the brightest of the lines of a nebula has 

 strengthened. On December 8, 1876, this last line was much 

 fainter than F, while on March 2, F was very much the fainter 

 of the two. Lockyer, in commenting upon these facts, says 

 that it has been shown by Croll that if the incandescence of 

 this star came from the collision of two bodies, each havinsr 

 half the mass of our sun, and moving 476 miles per second, 

 enough light and heat would be produced to cover the sun's 

 radiation (at the present rate) for 50,000,000 years. As so 

 much light, etc., has not been produced, Lockyer argues 

 that this body "might weigh only a few tons or even hun- 

 dred-weights," and that it may therefore be quite near to 

 us, and he suggests that accurate observations for position 

 may indicate a motion. 



Mr. S. C. Chandler, of New York, gives in the Astrono- 

 mische Naclirichten, No. 2119, the results of his observations 

 in 1875 on twenty-five variable stars. Anomalies have been 

 detected in the light curve of R. Sagittm which point out 

 the necessity of further examination. This series is note- 

 worthy as being the only one made in the United States (we 

 believe) since Masterman's, published in Gould's Astronom- 

 ical Journal. 



Dr. Schmidt, of Athens, communicates to the > AstronomiscJie 

 Kackrichten a long series of variable star observations made 

 in 1876. 



