G ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



A new work of 113 pages quarto on the photometry of the 

 fixed stars, by Wolff, is published at Leipzig. 



Klein, of Cologne, formerly announced that Alpha Vrsm 

 Majoris periodically changed color from an intense fiery red 

 to a yellow or yellowish-red every live weeks. Weber, of 

 Peckeloh, has observed this star during August, September, 

 October, and part of November, 1876, and finds this period to 

 be about thirty-five days, as before. This periodic change of 

 color must, then, be admitted, and it is the first one which 

 rests on a sure basis, and which regularly recurs at short 

 intervals. 



Pogson's catalogue and maps of variable stars are referred 

 to under the head of star catalogues. 



Montigny, in the Bulletin of the Belgian Academy, 187G, 

 No. S, publishes an elaborate discussion on the scintillation 

 of stars. 



Dr. Schmidt, of Athens, publishes in Astronomische JVach- 

 richten, 2109, an important paper on meteors, which com- 

 prises the results of a thirty-four years' series of observa- 

 tions. 



P. Secchi has drawn up a list of 444 stars of marked color, 

 giving their positions for 18*70, as well as magnitudes and 

 notes on the color. "This is a considerable enlargement of 

 Selijellerup's Catalogue, which contains 280 red stars; but 

 that it is very far indeed from being exhaustive is shown by 

 the circumstance that M. Fearnley, at Christiania, lias noted 

 no fewer than thirty-four such objects in observing a zone 

 of about 5. In fact, it would seem that the comparative 

 rarity of red stars in catalogues is simply due to the observ- 

 er's attention not having been directed to this point; and 

 there can be little doubt that a lars;e number of stars of the 

 sixth magnitude and under will be found on careful exami- 

 nation to be decidedly red." 



DOUBLE, MULTIPLE, AND BINARY STARS. 

 A general catalogue of double stars is now printing which 

 will probably be found to fulfil all the conditions for a work 

 of this class. It is from the hands of Mr. Burnham, of Chi- 

 cago, and is the work of many years. It will contain all the 

 elements of position (for 1880) with the particulars concern- 

 ing each star from the latest trustworthy authority, and 



