THE LIGHT OF THE STABS. 189 



at Tuam, in Ireland, by the Irish astronomer, 

 John Birmingham. Four hours earlier Schmidt 

 had been observing that part of the heavens, 

 and it was not then visible. Birmingham at 

 once communicated the discovery to Huggins, 

 at Tulse Hill, who had commenced his spectro- 

 scopic observations. On May 16 Huggins ob- 

 served its spectrum. In the words of Miss 

 Clerke, " The star showed what was described 

 as a double spectrum. To the dusky flutings 

 of Secchi's third type, four brilliant rays were 

 added. The chief of these agreed in position 

 with lines of hydrogen ; so that the immediate 

 cause of the outburst was plainly perceived to 

 have been the eruption, or ignition, of vast 

 masses of that subtle kind of matter." Nine 

 days after the appearance of the new star it 

 was invisible to the naked eye, and afterwards 

 fell to the tenth magnitude. In 1856 Schonfeld 

 had observed it at Bonn as a telescopic star, 

 so that it was not a "new star" in the true 

 sense of the word. 



The next temporary star observed was dis- 

 covered by Schmidt, at Athens, November 24, 

 1876. It was of the third magnitude, situated 

 in the constellation Cygnus. On December 2 

 its spectrum was examined at Paris by Alfred 

 Cornu (1841-1902), and some days later at 



