376 



ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



be rash to pretend that it furnishes us with an exact idea of the dis- 

 tance of the star Groombridge 1,830. But I consider it an indisputa- 

 ble result of my observations, that the parallax of this star is less than 

 O'M, for if it surpassed this quantity it could not have escaped me." 



In the course of some remarks upon this paper, M. Faye observes : 

 u If the parallax of the star Argelander is 0".034, its velocity, cal- 

 culated perpendicularly to a line joining our sun to the star is 251 

 leagues per second. Yet this enormous rapidity is only a minimum." 

 He also presented a table, from which it appears that the calculated 

 velocity of some of the stars is as follows. 



(i 



Arcturus. 22 leagues per second. 

 a Centauri, 5 " " 



61 Cygni, 16 " " 



Pole star, \ league per second. 

 a Lyras, 2 " " 



t Ursas Majoris, 7 " 

 Sirius, 6 " 



The velocities deduced from the different parallaxes which have been 

 assigned to Groombridge 1,830 are 8, 38, 47, and 251 leagues per sec- 

 ond. A correction must be made to all these velocities, on account of 

 the absolute motion of the sun and planets in space, of two leagues 

 per second. 



THE NEBULA. 



AT a late meeting of the Royal Society, the Earl of Rosse pre- 

 sented a communication detailing the results obtained by an examina- 

 tion of some of the nebulae with his large telescope. It was accompa- 

 nied by small sketches of some of them. He says they " are on a 

 small scale, but are sufficient to convey a pretty accurate idea of the 

 peculiarities of structure which have gradually become known. In 

 many of the nebulas they are very remarkable, and seem to indicate 

 the presence of dynamical laws that we may perhaps fancy to be almost 

 within our grasp." The spiral arrangement so strongly developed in 

 H. lt>22, 51 Mesier, is traceable more or less distinctly in several of 

 the sketches. More frequently there is a nearer approach to a kind 

 of irregular, interrupted, annular disposition of the luminous material, 

 than to the regularity so striking in 51 Mesier; but it can scarcely be 

 doubted that these nebulas are systems of a similar nature, seen more 

 or less perfectly, and variously placed with reference to the line of 

 sight. The author considers that 3,239 and 2,370 of Herschel's 

 " Southern Catalogue " are very probably objects of a similar charac- 

 ter with the above. London Athenaeum, July. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE LONDON ASTRO- 

 NOMICAL SOCIETY. 



MR. HIND says, " I discovered on the 4th of January last, a 

 rather conspicuous nebulas, the position of which for 1850 is, R. A. 

 12 h ; O m - 33 s -. 16, N. P. D. 23 59' 30".l. It is elliptical, and has a 

 decided nuclear condensation. 



" In October, 1845, I found a highly colored crimson, or even scar- 



