TEMPORARY STARS. 159 



cially excited the astonishment of all who saw it. As scintillation is 

 always accompanied with dispersion of color, much has been said of 

 its colored and continually-changing light. Arago (Annuaire pour 1834, 

 p. 209-301, and Ann. pour 1842, p. 345-347) has already called atten- 

 tion to the fact that the star of Kepler did not by any means, like that 

 of Tycho Brahe, assume, at certain long intervals, different colors, such 

 as yellow, red, and then again white. Kepler says expressly that his 

 star, as soon as it rose above the exhalations of the earth, was white. 

 When he speaks of the colors of the rainbow, it is to convey a clear 

 idea of its colored scintillation. His words are: " Exemplo adamantis 

 multanguli, qui solis radios inter convertendum ad spectantium oculos 

 variabili fulgore revibraret, colores Iridis (stella nova in Ophiucho) sue- 

 sessive vibratu continue reciprocabat." (De Nova Stella Serpent., p. 5 

 and 125.) In the beginning of January, 1605, this star was even brighter 

 than Antares, but less luminous than Arcturus. By the end of March in 

 the same year it was described as being of the third magnitude. Its 

 proximity to the sun prevented all observation for four months. Be- 

 tween February and March, 1606, it totally disappeared. The inaccu- 

 rate statements as to the great variations in the position of the new star, 

 advanced by Scipio Claramontius and the geographer Blaew, are scarcely 

 (as Jacques Cassini, Elemens d'Astr., p. 65, long since observed) deserv- 

 ing of notice, since they have been refuted by Kepler's more trustworthy 

 treatise. The Chinese Record of Ma-tuan-lin mentions a phenomenon 

 which exhibits some points of resemblance, as to time and position, with 

 this sudden appearance of a new star in Ophiuchus. On the 30th of 

 September, 1604, there was seen in China a reddish-yellow (" ball- 

 like?") star, not far from TT of Scorpio. It shone in the southwest till 

 November of the same year, when it became invisible. It reappeared 

 on the 14th of January, 16t)5, in the southeast; but its light became 

 slightly duller by March, 1606. (Connaissance des Temps pour 1846, 

 p. 59.) The locality, TT of the Scorpion, might easily be confounded 

 with the foot of Ophiuchus ; but the expressions southwest and south- 

 east, its reappearance, and the circumstance that its ultimate total dis 

 appearance is not mentioned, leave some doubts as to its identity. 



() This also is a new star of considerable magnitude, and seen in the 

 southwest. It is mentioned in Ma-tuau-lin. No further particulars are 

 recorded. 



(M) This is the new star discovered by the Carthusian monk Anthel- 

 mus on the 20th of June, 1670, in the head of Vulpes (R. A. 294 27'; 

 Decl. 26 47'), and not far from /? Cygni. At its first appearance it was 

 not of the first, but merely of the third magnitude, and on the 10th of 

 August it diminished to the fifth. It disappeared after three months, 

 but showed itself again on the 17th of March, 1671, when it was of the 

 fourth magnitude. Dominique Cassini observed it very closely in April, 

 1671, and found its brightness very variable. The new star is reported 

 to have regained its original splendor after ten months, but in Februa- 

 ry, 1672, it was looked for in vain. It did not reappear until the 29th 

 of March in the same year, and then only as a star of the sixth magni- 

 tude ; since that time it has never been observed. (Jacques Cassini, 

 Element d'Astr., p. 6971.) These phenomena induced Dominique 

 Cassini to search for stars never before seen (by him !). He main 

 tained that he had discovered fourteen such stars of the fourth, fifth, 

 and sixth magnitudes (eight in Cassiopeia, two ir Eridanus, and four 

 near the North Pole). From the absence of any precise data as to their 

 respective positions, and especially since, like those said to have been 



