PLEASURES OF THE TELESCOPE. 791 



10", colors golden yellow and deep blue. The three-inch shows 

 them finely. The smaller star is itself double, its companion 

 being of magnitude eight, distance when discovered in 1842 0*5", 

 color bluish green. A few years ago this third star got so close 

 to its primary that it was invisible even with the highest powers 

 of the great Lick telescope, but at present it appears to be widen- 

 ing again. In October, 1893, 1 had the pleasure of looking at 7 

 Andromedse with the Lick telescope, and at that time it was pos- 

 sible just to separate the third star. The angle seemed too small 

 for certain measurement, but a single setting of the micrometer 

 by Mr. Barnard, to whose kindness I was indebted for my view 

 of the star, gave 0"17" as the approximate distance. The brilliance 

 of color contrast between the two larger stars of 7 Andromedse is 

 hardly inferior to that exhibited in /3 Cygni, so that this star may 

 be regarded as one of the most picturesque of stellar objects for 

 small telescopes. 



Other pleasing objects in this constellation are the binary 

 star 36, magnitudes six and six and a half, distance 1", p. 12. 

 The two stars are slowly closing and the five-inch glass is re- 

 quired to separate them : the richly colored variable R, which 

 fades from magnitude five and a half to invisibility, and then re- 

 covers its light in a period of about four hundred and five days ; 

 and the bright star cluster 457, which covers a space about equal 

 to the area of the full moon. 



Just south of the eastern end of Andromeda is the small con- 

 stellation Triangulum, or the Triangles, containing two interest- 

 ing objects. One of these is the beautiful little double 6, magni- 

 tudes five and six, distance 3*8", p. 77, colors yellow and blue ; 

 and the other, the nebula 352, which equals in extent the star 

 cluster in Andromeda described above, but nevertheless appears 

 very faint with our largest glass. Its faintness, however, is not 

 an indication of insignificance, for to very powerful telescopes it 

 exhibits a wonderful system of nuclei and spirals another bit of 

 chaos that is yielding by age-long steps to the influence of demi- 

 urgic forces. 



A richer constellation than Andromeda, both for naked-eye 

 and telescopic observation, is Perseus, which is especially remark- 

 able for its star clusters. Two of these, 512 and 521, constitute 

 the celebrated double cluster, sometimes called the Sword-hand 

 of Perseus, and also x Persei. To the smallest telescope this ag- 

 gregation of stars, ranging in magnitude from six and a half 

 to fourteen, and grouped about two neighboring centers, presents 

 a marvelous appearance. As a striking object for an eye unac- 

 customed to celestial observations it may be compared among 

 star clusters to /3 Cygni among double stars, for the most indif- 

 ferent spectator wonders at it. All the other clusters in Perseus 



