ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 



NEW PLANETS AND COMETS. 



The discovery of three new asteroidal planets has been announced 

 during the past year, making the whole number now recognized seven- 

 ty-nine. The seventy-seventh asteroid was discovered November 12, 

 1862, by Dr. C. H. F. Peters, at the Hamilton College Observatory 

 N. Y. 



The seventy-eighth asteroid was discovered March 15th, 1863, by 

 Dr. Luther of Bilk, Germany. It has received the name Diana, and 

 is of the tenth magnitude. 



The seventy-ninth asteroid was discovered September 14th, by Prof. 

 James C. Watson, of the observatory of Ann- Arbor, Michigan ; and 

 has received the name Eurynome. 



New Comets. Six comets, which are believed to have not before 

 been recognized, have been discovered during the past year. None of 

 them, however, exhibited features of special interest. On the 21st of 

 November, 1863, a comet was discovered with the naked eye by D. 

 M. Covey, of Southville, N. Y., whose elements so closely correspond 

 with the comet of 1810 that there can be but very little doubt of the 

 identity of the two. Whether this is the first return to the perihelion 

 since 1810, or whether it has returned several times unperceived, 

 must be decided by subsequent observations. 



Intra-Mercurial Planet.- -In the Monthly Notices of the Royal As- 

 tronomical Society, Mr. Carrington has printed a letter from Dr. Von 

 Littrow, of which we give a portion. The latter says that in the 

 Vienna Times of April 27, 1820, he finds the statement, probably com- 

 municated by his father, that " M. Steinheibel, who, for the last four 

 years has daily observed the sun, and recorded his spots and faculse 

 with care in a diary, on February 12, 1820, at lOh. 45m. in the morn- 

 ing, observed a spot which was distinguished from all the rest by its 

 well-defined circular form, by its equally circular atmosphere, by its 

 orange-red color, and especially by its unusual motion, completing the 

 diameter of the sun in nearly five hours." This note is very interest- 

 ing as confirmatory of M. Lescarbault's discovery of Vulcan in 1859, 

 which, however, has never been seen again. 



MORE COMPANIONS OF SIRIUS : PLANETARY SYSTEMS AMONG 



THE STARS. 



The assertion so frequently made and so generally accepted that 

 our sun is one of the fixed stars, is of course incapable of demonstration. 

 Its probability seems to rest chiefly upon two arguments, that the 

 light of the stars is evidently of the same intrinsic and self-developed 



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