PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 783 



wide knowledge, his sure and prompt judgment, his ready and 

 sharp word, all these shrunk away so as to seem but a small part 

 of him ; his greater part, and that which most shaped his life, was 

 seen to be a heart full of love, which, clinging round his family 

 and his friends in tenderest devotion, was spread over all his fel- 

 low-men in kindness guided by justice. Nature. 



PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 



Br GAERETT P. SERVISS. 

 VII. PISCES, ARIES, TAURUS, AND THE NORTHERN STARS. 



THE eastern end of Pisces, represented in map No. 22, includes 

 most of the interesting telescopic objects that the constella- 

 tion contains. We begin our exploration at the star numbered 

 55, a double that is very beautiful when viewed with the three- 

 inch glass. The components are of magnitudes five and eight, 

 distance 6"G", p. 192. The larger star is yellow and the smaller 

 deep blue. The star 65, while lacking the peculiar charm of con- 

 trasted colors so finely displayed in 55, possesses an attraction 

 in the equality of its components which are both of the sixth 

 magnitude and milk-white. The distance is 4*5*', p. 118. In 66 

 we find a swift binary whose components are at present far too 

 close for any except the largest telescopes. The distance in 1894: 

 was only 0"36", p. 329. The magnitudes are six and seven. In 

 contrast with this excessively close double is ij/, whose compo- 

 nents are both of magnitude five and a half, distance 30", p. 160. 

 Dropping down to 77 we come upon another very wide and pleas- 

 ing double, magnitudes six and seven, distance 33", p. 82, colors 

 white and lilac or pale blue. Hardly less beautiful is , magni- 

 tudes five and six, distance 24", p, 64. Finest of all is a, which 

 exhibits a remarkable color contrast, the larger star being green- 

 ish and the smaller blue. The magnitudes are four and five, dis- 

 tance 3", p. 320. This star is a binary, but the motion is slow. 

 The variable R ranges between magnitudes seven and thirteen, 

 period three hundred and forty-four days. 



The constellation Aries contains several beautiful doubles, all 

 but one of which are easy for our smallest aperture. The most 

 striking of these is 7, which is historically interesting as the first 

 double star discovered. The discovery was made by Robert 

 Hooke in 1664 by accident, while he was following the comet of 

 that year with his telescope. He expressed great surprise on 

 noticing that the glass divided the star, and remarked that he 

 had not met with a like instance in all the heavens. His obser- 



