THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY. 



JULY, 1900. 

 CHAPTEES ON THE STABS, 



By Professor SIMON NEWCOMB. 



I. Introductory. 



IT would be difficult to name any subject of investigation, the prog- 

 ress of which during our time has been more remarkable than that 

 in the field of stellar astronomy. Several features of this progress are 

 especially noteworthy. One of these is the mere extension of research. 

 A natural result of the northern hemisphere being the home of civ- 

 ilized peoples was that, thirty years ago, the study of the southern 

 heavens had been comparatively neglected. It is true that the curiosity 

 of the inquiring astronomers of the past would not be satisfied without 

 their knowing something of what was to be seen south of the equator. 

 Various enterprises and establishments had therefore contributed to 

 our knowledge of the region in question. As far back as 1667, during 

 a voyage to St. Helena, Halley catalogued the brighter stars in the 

 region near the South Pole. About 1750 Lacaille, of France, estab- 

 lished an observing station at the Cape of Good Hope, and made a cata- 

 logue of several thousand stars which has remained a handy book for 

 the astronomer up to the present time. In 1834-38 Sir John Herschel 

 made a special voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, armed with the best 

 telescopes which the genius of bis father had shown him how to con- 

 struct, for the purpose of doing for the southern heavens as much as 

 possible of what his father had done for the northern. The work 

 of this expedition forms one of the most important and interesting 

 •chapters in the history of astronomic science. Not only is Herschel's 

 magnificent volume a classic of astronomy, but the observations which it 

 •contains are still as carefully and profitably studied as any that have 



