226 HERSCHEL AND HIS WORK 



surrounded by a luminous atmosj ay bo looked 



upon as so many opaque, habitable, planetary globes ; 



tliti'-riiiLr. from \ know nf mir own planets, 



only in tl . and by th.-ir intrinsically luminous 



rancr. They also, like tip- ]>lam-is. .shin.- \\ith 

 lili i, ntly coloured light That of Arcturus and 

 AMi-baran, for instance, is as different from the li^lit 

 an-1 ( 1 ajK-lla, as that of Mars and Saturn is 

 from tin- li^ht of Venus and Jupiter. A still greater 

 variety of coloured star-light has already br- 

 io exist in many double stars, such as > An.ln.m. l.i 

 Cygni, ami many more. In my sw< also 



recorded the places of 9 deep garnet, 5 bright gum. t, 

 and 10 red coloured stars, of various small magnitude! 

 from tli. Ttli to the 12th. 



" By some experiments on the light of a few of tin 

 stars of the 1st magnitude, ma<lr in 1798, by a prism 

 applied to the eye-glasses of my reflectors, adjustable 

 to any angle, and to any direction, 1 had the following 

 analyses : 



lii. li-litof Sirius consists of red, orange, yellow, 

 green, blue, purple, and violet 



"aOrionis contains the same colours, but tip- n.l is 

 more intense, and the orange and yellow ar< 

 copious in proportion than they are in Sirius. 



" Procyon contains all the colours, but proportionally 

 more blue and purple than Sirius. 



"Arcturus contains more red and orange and less 

 yellow in proportion than Sirius. 



"Aldebaran contains much orange, and very little 

 yellow. 



"a Lyrse contains much yellow, green, blue, ami 

 purple." 



