124 LI GHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



planet sending us altogether some sixty times as much 

 light as Uranus. 



But what the telescope had hitherto failed to accom- 

 plish, has just been achieved by means of that wonderful 

 ally of the telescope, the spectroscope, in the able hands 

 of the eminent astronomer and physicist, Dr. Huggins. 

 News has been received about the constitution of the 

 atmosphere of Uranus, and news so strange (apart from 

 the strangeness of the mere fact that any information 

 could be gained at all respecting a vaporous envelope 

 so far away) as to lead us to speculate somewhat curi- 

 ously respecting the conditions under which the Ura- 

 nians, if there are any, have their being. 



Before describing the results of Dr. Huggins's late 

 study of the planet, it may be well to give a brief 

 account of what is known respecting Uranus. 



The question has been raised whether Uranus was 

 known to the astronomers of old times. There 

 is nothing altogether improbable in the supposi- 

 tion that in countries where the skies are unusually 

 clear, the planet might have been detected by its 

 motions. Even in our latitude Uranus can be quite 

 readily seen on clear and moonless nights, when favour- 

 ably situated. He shines at such times as a star of 

 about the fifth magnitude that is, somewhat more 

 brightly than the faintest stars visible to the naked 

 eye. In the clear skies of more southerly latitudes he 

 would appear a sufficiently conspicuous object, though, 

 of course, it would be wholly impossible for even the 

 most keen-sighted observer to recognise any difference 



