362 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1885. 



ficial stars, since in these latter measures the stars alone are moved, 

 and not the objective. It would be desirable, then, for observers who 

 possess telescopes mounted in what is generally known as the " German" 

 manner, and having such a defect as is described by M. Bigourdau, to 

 have the tube of the telescope made movable round its optical axis, 

 and to form each measure of position-angle from the mean of six made 

 in six positions of the objective differing by 60°. As this would be 

 practically impossible in the case of large instruments, M. Bigourdan 

 suggests that observers, commencing a series of observations of double 

 stars with telescopes of any considerable size, should turn the objective 

 through 00° at the commencement of each year and re measure the same 

 pairs as in the preceding year, and to continue this process until each 

 pair has been measured in the six i)ositions of the objective. {Observa- 

 tory, March, 1885.) 



Frocyon. — In the Vierteljahrsschrift for 1884, Herr Seeliger reviews a 

 work on Frocyon by L. Struve. The work is a discussion of two series 

 of observations of Procyon made at Pulkowa since 1851, and has ap- 

 appeared in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. 

 It is hard to tell whether these observations confirm Dr. Auwers' result 

 (a circular orbit with a radius of l"-00) ; they appear, on the ^hole, to 

 indicate motions of a smaller amplitude. 



/? Cygni, Albireo. — The December number of U Astronomie contains 

 an article on this star in which a singular mistake occurs.* /5 Cygni is 

 riamsteed's 6 Cygni, and M. Flammarion has been misled by this cir- 

 cumstance into identifying it with Bode's G Cygni, which latter star 

 Professor Ball observed for annual parallax a year or two back, and 

 found for it a value of about half a second. The star observed by Pro- 

 fessor Ball is called 6 (B) Cygni, as being the second of the pair, 6 

 Cygni being a double star, {Observatory.) 



VARIABLE, NEW, OR TEMPORARY STARS. 



* 



Gore's catalogue of suspected variables.* — This catalogue may be re- 

 garded as complemental to the Catalogue of Known Variable Stars, by 

 the same author, which was read before the Koyal Irish Academy, Jan- 

 uary 28, 1884. It contains a list, including lettered numbers, of 745 1 

 stars in which some change of magnitude is suspected. The stars are 

 tabulated in order of Eight Ascension for the epoch 1880-0, and in sep- 

 arate columns are to be found particulars of the supposed change of 

 magnitude and the authority on which the supposed change rests. In 

 the notes and observations, by which the catalogue is followed, are 

 given particulars of the history of each star, together with observations 

 by the author of such stars as have received attention from him. The 



* A Catalogue of Suspected Variable Stars, with Notes and Observations. By .1. E. 

 Gore, M. R. I. A., F. R. A. S. A paper read befote the Royal Irish Academy, May 12, 



1884. 



.'■< t 



