Jan. 1 6, 1879] 



NATURE 



245 



a^o." That alteration was made by Sir Thooiis Hannier, and 

 las beea rejected by every subsequent editor, and rightly so. 

 "Green" was a common epithet for the eyes, and examples 

 occur in many of our early poets, from Chaucer to Milton. 

 Dyce quotes from H. Weber (a propos of Cervantes), " Green 

 eyes were considered as peculiarly beautiful." We have of 

 Neptune, '•'Thy rare green eye," in "The Two Noble Kins- 

 men," V. I, in a passage attributed by some to Shakespeare. 

 That Shakespeare wrote green in " Romeo and Juliet" I think 

 beyond reasonable doubt ; and if he wrote gran he certainly 

 meant green, and not blue: for in "A Midsummer Night's 

 Dream " gjreen eyes are compared to leeks. In our day violet 

 «yes have the precedence over green eyes, yet I think there 

 is still a kind of fascination in the latter. I leave the eagles 

 to the naturalists.* Ne tutor, &•€. 



C. M. Ingleby 

 Valentines, Ilford 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



A Variable Star observed by Scheiner in 

 1612. — In the last number of the " Vierteljahrsschrift 

 der a5trono;nischen Gesellschaft," Prof. Winnecke ex- 

 amines an observation made by Scheiner, of Rosa Ursina 

 notoriety, which appears to involve for its explanation 

 the variability of a star at a past time which of late years 

 has exhibited no fluctuation in brightness. In Scheiner's 

 second work, "De Maculis Solaribus," published at 

 Augsburg in 1612, are several letters addressed to his 

 patron. Welser, one of which, dated April 14, 16 12, con- 

 tains obsen-ations of Jupiter and his satellites from 

 March 29 to April 8. (It will be remembered that 

 Scheiner regarded the solar spots as in reality solar 

 satellites, which explains the introduction of notices of 

 the satellites of Jupiter in a work professedly relating to 

 sun-spots.) On ^larch 30 he remarked, in addition to 

 the four known satellites of the planet, a fifth star in the 

 same field of view, not observed on the preceding night. 

 This star diminished to invisibility on April 9. Suspect- 

 ing a slight proper motion, it was regarded by Scheiner 

 as a fifth satellite of Jupiter. From figures showing the 

 position of the star with respect to the planet on ^Iarch 

 30 and April 7, it may be inferred that they were in con- 

 junction in longitude on the latter day, with a difference 

 of latitude of 10', the star to the south. Some years 

 ■since Prof. Winnecke had calculated the place of Jupiter 

 from Bouvard's table for the date of observation, with 

 the view to identify the star which so soon disappeared, 

 but Leverrier's tables for this planet being now available, 

 he engaged Herr Kiistner, one of the students at 

 Strasburg, to compute the position of Jupiter for 

 April 7, 1612, at Paris midnight: the geocentric 

 longitude was found to be 136^ 13' i,"'},, and the 

 latitude + i' 6' 11" ^^ (differing about 6' from Bouvard's 

 place); hence the position of Scheiner's star, referred 

 to the epoch of the " Durchmusterung" — 1855-0, will 

 be in R.A. 9h. 29m. 21 -25., DecL -(- 15= 52'-i, thus iden- 

 tifying the object with a star of 8'5m., which the " Durch- 

 musterung" places in R.A. gh. 29m. 21-45., DecL + 

 'S° 53''5- There are several observations of this star ; 

 it occurs in Lalande's zone, 1796, April 4 (No. 1S886 of 

 the reduced catalogue), as 8m. ; Bessel observed it twice 

 in 1825, estimating it, on February 24, 8m., and on 

 March 12, 7-8m., and Struve using it as a reference-star 

 for Biela' s comet on October 26 in the following year, 

 also rated it 7 •8m. Again, it was observed bv Preuss 

 M-ith the Dorpat meridian circle, in March, 1833, and 

 noted of the same magnitude, so that during this period 

 its brightness appears to have been constant, and Prof. 

 Winnecke adds that repeated comparisons made by him- 

 self during the last seventeen years have not indicated 

 any variation. The close agreement of place identifies 

 the star satisfactorily, and he infers that we have here an 

 "Stance of a star which, though apparently constant 



ring the present century, was variable in Scheiner's 



time. Prof. Winnecke remarks upon the interest that 

 would attach to a spectroscopic examination of this 

 object by the possessors of powerful telescopes. Its 

 position for i88o'o is in R.A. gh. 3001. 443., N.P.D. 

 74' I2'7. He considers that, notwithstanding Scheiner's 

 inexpressible prolixity, the author of the Rosa Ursina 

 does not deserve the severe reproach which he has re- 

 ceived at the hands of the astronomical historian, but 

 that he was thoroughly candid in communicating what he 

 had seen, and much acquaintance with his writings has 

 strengthened this opinion. 



The unusual phenomenon to which we have adverted 

 appears to have made a strong impression upon Scheiner. 

 who transmitted his observation on the instant to Welser, 



The Zodiacal Light. — We have already alluded in 

 this column to the very questionable accuracy of a state- 

 ment so often made in popular astronomical works, that 

 the evening zodiacal light is best seen in these latitudes in 

 March, near the rernal equinox, the inclination of its axis 

 to the horizon being then greater than earlier in the year. 

 Notwithstanding this circumstance, it appears certain 

 that of late years the finest views, or we would say the 

 most conspicuous exhibitions of the zodiacal light have 

 occurred between the middle of January and the middle 

 of Februar)'. Many instances of bright displays of the 

 phenomenon during this interval might be mentioned. 

 Thus, on February 6, 1856, Secchi records that the light 

 at Rome was brighter than he ever remembered to have 

 seen it, and of great extent ; it was yellowish towards the 

 axis, and while the more conspicuous part of the Via 

 Lactea, in Cygnus, was invisible in a hazy sky at a low 

 altitude, the light was traceable to the horizon ; it was 

 slightly curved towards the north, and is described as 

 presenting on the whole "un grande spettacolo ; " on this 

 evening, it is added, the rest of the sky was illuminated in 

 an unusual manner. Again, it was in the middle of 

 Februar}', 1866, that Mr. Lassell, during his last residence 

 at Malta, witnessed a remarkable display. He says as 

 he went up to the Observatory the striking brightness of 

 the zodiacal light riveted his attention as never before. 

 It was at least twice as bright as the brightest part of the 

 Milky Way, and fully twice as bright as he ever saw it before, 

 and Mr. Lassell upon this occasion also remarked that its 

 character was quite different to that of the MUky Way, 

 a difference more easily recognised than described ; gene- 

 rally it is of a much redder hue. In 1874, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London, the most conspicuous displays took 

 place on the evenings of Januarj- 14 and 17, and February 

 18, and in 1875, on Januarj' 24, 25, and 30, on the first of 

 these evenings the zodiacal light was surprisingly con- 

 spicuous, decidedly reddish, and much excelling any part 

 of the Milky Way. Observations on the position of the 

 apex during these favourable views of late years fully sup- 

 port the conclusion of Prof. Jidius Schmidt in his treatise 

 on the phenomenon, published in 1856, that the maximum 

 eastern elongation of the apex falls about the middle of 

 January. Towards the end of March, on the contrary, 

 there is a minimum, according to the Athens astronomer, 

 as regards elongation, breadth, and the inclination of the 

 axis of the light on the north side of the ecliptic. 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES 



New Asiatic Fishes.— In the Annals of Natural 

 History for 1873 '^ was given a translation of Prof. Kessler's 

 description of the new sturgeon, Scaphirhynchus fedischen- 

 koi, recendy discovered in the S>t Daria or Jaxartes, 

 and a note by Dr. Giinther, pointing out the interest 

 attaching to the existence in Northern Asia of a second 

 species of this curious form, hitherto only known from 

 the single species, S. cataphractus, of the Mississippi. 

 Recently, however, a second Asiatic species of Sca- 



' " On a Remarkable Fish of the Family o£ Sturgeons," &c. {Ann, Nat, 

 Hist., ser. 4, vol. x'i. p. i6j). 



