ASTRONOMY. PROGRESS OP, IN 1895. 



Ik* bod/ of the giant- The mas^whic 

 U> b of a Pfiiral aatorv. Marts from a 

 ts ml of fit*, and. involving . paaw 

 art* of Kappa, whence ^trends JMI 



law ssjswply lowa/^l t n* v^esL ii passe 



SJSJB BwaWss) ovl An ouMymg ^KJWWI 



_ ih extreme diameter of 

 rees in magni- 



. - .. " r: ; ' 



previ- 



Uken in southern 



that the great nebula in Orion, and 

 all lu appendafetare moving in the 

 of sight avar from the Earth at the rate of 



H miles par 



It wsVfbnnerly supposed, and (ho identity 

 rtrongty contended for, that the principal nebu- 

 lar l5s was identical with the magnesium nut- 

 ing, but Prot Keeler has proved that this is not 

 UM earn He has determined the wave l 

 of UM principal line to be 5,007-05 -03 



.Md tCt of the second to be 4J5XB -04 

 it follows that neither of 

 with any known terrestrial 

 The third nebular* line is the H one 

 of hydrogen. Prom the displacement of this 

 Mar line Prof. Keeler deduced the motion of 

 Orion a* noted above. In like manner he showed 

 ivi in be approaching os at the rate of about 

 ft miles a iScond, and that No. 4878, General 

 Osulogve of Nebula, has the greatest approach- 

 Hrrefcoity of any nebula known, amount ing to 

 r miles per second. Alto that No. 6790 

 OMMfal Gstakcur. has the greatest relo. 



foa. equal to 80*1 miles a second. Among 

 noUworthy results of his observations may 

 be aissjtioniJ that the spectrum of the I 

 UM nebula mdieates either a high temperature 

 of the MS emitting the light or a state of 

 strong tfcotrical eidtement, and that both t em- 

 arc greatly increased at 



In - Itanrard Obsenratory Annals," Part I, 

 Prot E.C. Pickerin slates that no clear indict 



Haw of rhsags of shape or .f brilliancy have 

 bees) noted in UM nebula within the last ten 



it through a thin per- 

 * in contact with the 



Ed with the prism placed in 

 glass corresponding to the 

 -Mtmble most close! 

 and wave length 878 is 

 boSierofthe 



' - .: 



to be not 



than <HW, corresponding to a distance 

 light would require a thousand yean to 



nebula showing isophotal contours which will bo 

 valuable in subsequent researches of tin- 



..In-. 



riiottjfnpfcfa N'lmlir. !'.T s,. v .T;il y.-ars 

 it has been known thai tip : th<> Pleia- 



des or th- B popularly called, 



is filled with scattered patches <i n, l.ula Ih.- 

 Merope nebula, discovered in 1W \,, i',,,f. \v,i- 

 helm Tempel, is the only one conspi 



i the telescope, but photography reveals 

 the presence of several others. The entire con- 

 Htcllation seems to be a mixture of stars and 



Mrln 



I>r. Barnard, thinking he had observed signs 

 ..f tirhulosities ouisi.lr of and Mirntundiu^ th<- 

 group, subjected his surmise to photographic: 

 The exposure lasted for ten hours ami 

 fifteen minutes, and the resulting picture showed 

 n nuiiilMT of singular curved and streaked nrlm- 

 losities extending all around the cluster. S.>im 

 <>f those wispy streams extend irre^ularh <>n 

 each sidr <>f t'he cluster, especially toward tli<> 

 east, for several degrees. The photographic 

 plate shows that for a considerable di>tam< to 

 the north is a region singularly devoid of small 

 stars, but filled with large masses of v< TV ditTusc 

 nebulosity. The is important as show- 



ing that the photographic nebula^ may surpass 

 the telescopic in extent and numbers. 



In course of his photographic study of the 

 Milky Way he has discovered a magnificent neb- 

 ula of vast proportions in Scorpius, connected 

 apparently with many of the bright stars in the 

 neighborhood, including Antares and 



S< orpii. The latter has a large, diffused mass of 

 nebulosity reaching northward which can be 

 traced on the photograph to a >nmtion with 

 brighter nebulosity about Rho ophiuchi. 



> .i! ial>lc Nebulae. There has been long dis- 

 pii tat ion regarding the variability of nebula-. 

 From observations at the Li< k Observatory by 

 Profs. Hurnham and I'.arnard it appears t hat 

 Tau Tatiri is involved in nebulosity, that Hind's 

 celebrated variable nebula was only just visible 

 with the 86-inch telescope, and that Struve's 

 nebula close by can not be seen at all. 



Th- history of HindV nebula is too loi; 

 insertion hcr- and too interesting to be entirely 

 foregone. In "Chambers*! Handbook o 

 tronomy " the record of its discovery, its disap- 

 pearance, an<! final reappearance may be found. 

 A faint star in close proximity to this m-bnla 

 varies in brightness also, and adds to the interest 

 already attaching t.. the nebula. 



Photofraph ef II. I. M. -This nebula, which 

 is No. 8240 of the General Catalogue, has been 

 photographed by Isaac Roberts with his 20 im h 

 reflector. This is described by Lord Rosse as 

 very large and very bright, its center like an 

 elongated nebula with nucleus, and enveloped in 

 an irregular ring or rings of nebulous light. lie 

 thought it spiral in form, but the photograph 

 does not so present it, and shows the nucleus to 

 be a nebulous star of the twelfth magnitude. 

 Surrounding the nucleus at a great distance is a 

 well-defined ring, and in this ring several star- 

 oodensations of nebulosity are involved. 

 Outside tl is rin. but symmetrical with it, is an- 

 other and fainter one, and beyond this latter are 



indications of still another very faint ring. 

 rof. Pickering has contracted a chan of the Mr. Roberts has photographed II. I. 143 = 



