OD- 



NATURE 



[July 4, 19 18 



J 50 \t;u>. CO had its minimum value of jx about 

 1011; it will reach the -mean value in 1949 and the 

 maximum value in 1986. Its phase in this libration ap- 

 pears to bf nearly opposite to that of Patroclus, so that 

 the two planets are on opposite sides of tlicir librational 

 ellipse. 



A Faint Star with Large Propkk Mohon. In 

 the Ast. Nach., No. 4944, Dr. Max Wolf announces 

 the discovery that a 13th magnitude star, about 2° west 

 of X Leonis, has the exceptionally large proper motion 

 of nearlv 5" per annum. The star appears on plates 

 taken \vith the Bruce telescope at an interval of 

 17055 years, and the following co-ordinates for 18750 

 have been determined from neighbouring comparison 

 stars : — 



R.A. Decl. 



h. m. s. ,, , ,; 



190 1 146 10 50 24-40 +7 45 21-8 



1918-201 10 50 20-00 +7 44 3^7 



These measures give the proper motion as 4-66" in 

 the direction 235-4°, in close agreement with 4-84'' in 

 the direction 232° determined by the stereo-comparator. 

 In the period covered by the observations the total 

 motion of the star was 1-4'. 



The Young Moon Seen as a Chicle. — Miss E. A. 

 Stevenson has directed attention to the interesting 

 appearance which the moon occasionally presents when 

 about two da\s old (Journ. Brit. Ast. Assoc, 

 vol. xxviii., p. 223). Besides the familiar earth-shine 

 effect, the ■dark" limb of the moon then appears as 

 a ring of silver light, in continuation of the illuminated 

 crescent. When observed by Miss Stevenson, the circle 

 has always been complete, but never of uniform bril- 

 liance, and its whiteness was in striking contrast with 

 the pink or ashy hue of the earth-shine. Mr. W. 

 Goodacre points out that the ring is best seen when 

 the earth-shine is most marked, and attributes the ap- 

 pearance to the greater brightness of the moon's sur- 

 face near the eastern limb as compared with the 

 adjacent regions. The presence or absenceof a similar 

 effect along the western limb just before new moon 

 does not appear to have been noted. 



Parallax of the Barnard Star. — A new determina- 

 tion of the parallax of this star has been made at the 

 Dearborn Observatory {Ast. Journ., No. 734). The 



value, found 



: 0-016", which is somewhat 



larger than the other photographic determinations. 



A Jap.^nese Meteorite. — Mr. Kuni Niinomi, writing 

 from the South Manchurian Middle School at Mukden, 

 China, sends us particulars of a meteoric stone which 

 was observed to fall on January 25 last, at 2.28 p.m., 

 in' Central Japan, the locality being near the village 

 of Tane, in the prefecture of Shiga, on the east side 

 of Lake Biwa, province Omi. There was an ex- 

 plosion and -something was heard to fall, and through 

 a hole in the snow the stone was found at a depth 

 of a foot in the ground. It is irregularly wedge- 

 shaped, and covered with a black crust with the usual 

 "thumb-markings." The greatest dimension is 

 86 mm., and the weight 311-16 grams, specific gravity 

 3-55. On the fractured surface the stone is grey, with 

 brown spots and ininute spangles .of metal. In 

 character the new stone is very similar to those of 

 the shower which fell on July 24, 1909, near the 

 town of Gifu, in province Mino (adjoining province 

 Omi). The latter consist of olivine and bronzite, with 

 very little nickel-iron, and were classed as a "white 

 chondrite." These two falls are to be added to the 

 list of sixteen falls of meteorites, mostly stones, recog- 

 nised by K. Jimbo in 1906 in his "General Notes on 

 Japanese Meteorites." 



NO. 2540, VOL. lOl] 



THE KE]V STAR IN A QUI LA. 



THE following estimates of magnitude of Novas 

 Aquilae have been communicated by Mr. Harold 

 Thomson, who independentlv detected the star on 

 June 8 :— 



The magnitudes marked with an asterisk were not 

 considered very satisfactory on account of clouds or 

 twilight. Making due allowance for these, the decline 

 of the star does not appear to have been accompanied 

 by any marked fluctuations. 



Several early observations of the new star, made on 

 June 8 and 9, are reported in the ephemeris circular 

 of the Ast. Nach., 1918, No. 548. The first informa- 

 tion received by the Centralstelle was from Prof. L. 

 Courvoisier, who had observed the star at Babelsberg; 

 on June 8 at i2h. 38m. G.M.T. ; the magnitude at 

 i3h. 30m. was given as i-i, and the spectrum was 

 stated to show bright and dark lines. Prof. Schorr 

 states that a photograph taken with the reflector at 

 Bergedorf on June 10 showed no trace of nebulosity in 

 the vicinity of the nova. According to a telegram 

 from Dr. Gautier, via Copenhagen, the new star was 

 observed by Prof. Laskovski at Geneva on the evening^ 

 of June 7, but no mention is made of its magnitude. 



The spectrum of the new star has undergone con- 

 siderable changes as compared with the observations 

 previously reported in N.ature. On June 29, when 

 the star had diminis-hed in brightness to about magni- 

 tude 4, Prof. Fowler observed that while the bright 

 hydrogen lines were still the predominant feature, they 

 had become very broad, and each appeared to have a 

 central dark line, as if reversed or doubled. In the 

 case of Ha, there was no marked difference in the 

 intensities of the two components, but the less 

 refrangible component of Hg w^as distinctly the brighter. 

 The total breadth of the bright Hgwas estimated at 

 not much less than 40 A. The band about A 464 was 

 broad and bright, but not so strong as Hg. Of the 

 group of lines less refrangible than Hg, 492, 517, and 

 532 had considerably diminished in intensity, but 502 

 had not faded at the same rate, and was the brightest 

 of the, four. All these were very broad, and possibly 

 double or reversed like 11^. The dark bands and the 

 adjacent bright bands about 560 and D were still 

 visible, and the bright D band was divided cen- 

 trallv by a dark line. There was also a broad, faint 

 band about A 600, and a narrower band about A 631. 

 The relative brightening of 502 may possibly indicate 

 the incoming of the adjacent nebular line 5007. 



Father Cortie informs us that further photographs- 

 of the spectrum were obtained at Stonyhurst on 

 June 29 and 30. The chief features on these plates are 

 the broad bright bands of hydrogen and the band about 

 A 464. Other bright bands are also present, but no 



