158 COSMOS. 



and fixed stars, go back to the year 613 B.C., to the times of Thales 

 and the expedition of CoIebus of Samos. This new star appeared in the 

 middle of December, 1230, between Ophiuchus and the Serpent. It 

 dissolved toward the end of March, 1231. 



(?!.) This is the star mentioned by the Bohemian astronomer, Cypri- 

 anus Leovitius (and referred to under the ninth star, in the year 945). 

 About the same time (July, 1264), a great comet appeared, whose tail 

 swept over one half of the heavens, and which, therefore, could not be 

 mistaken for a new star suddenly appearing between Cepheus and Cas- 

 siopeia. 



(o) This is Tycho Brahe's star of the 11th of November, 1572, in the 

 Chair of Cassiopeia, R. A. 3° 26' ; Decl. 63° 3' (for 1800). 



{p) February, 1578. Taken from Ma-tuan-lin. The constellation is 

 not given, but the intensity and i-adiation of the light must have been 

 extraordinary, since the Chinese Record appends the remark, " a star 

 as large as the sun !" 



{q) On the 1st of July, 1584, not far from rr of Scorpio ; also a Chinese 

 observation. 



(r) According to Bayer, the star 34 of Cygnus. Wilhelm Jansen, the 

 celebrated geographer, who for a time had been the associate of Tycho 

 Brahe in his observations, was the first, as an inscription on his celes- 

 tial globe testifies, to draw attention to the new star in the breast of the 

 Swan, near the beginning of the neck. Kepler, who, after the death 

 of Tycho Brahe, was for some time prevented from carrying on any 

 observations, both by his travels and want of instruments, did not ob- 

 serve it till two years later, and, indeed (what is the more surprising, 

 since the star was of the third magnitude), then first heard of its exist- 

 ence. He thus writes: " Cum mense Maio, anni 1602, primum litteris 

 monerer de novo Cygni phsenomeno." (Kepler, De Stella Nova tertii 

 ho?ioris in Cygno, 1606, which is appended to the work De Stella Nova 

 in Serpent., p. 152, 154, 164, and 167.) In Kepler's treatise it is no- 

 where said (as we often find asserted in modern works) that this star 

 of Cygnus upon its first appearance was of the first magnitude. Kep- 

 ler even calls it " parva Cygni stella," and speaks of it throughout as 

 one of the third magnitude. He determines its position in R. A. 300° 

 46' ; Decl. 36° 52' (therefore for 1800 : R. A. 302° 36' ; Decl. -f 37° 27'). 

 The star decreased in brilliancy, especially after the year 1619, and van- 

 ished in 162 1 . Dominique Cassini (see Jacques Cassini, Elemens d'Astr., 

 p. 69) saw it, in 1655, again attain to the third magnitude, and then dis- 

 appear. Hevelius observed it again in November, 1665, at first ex- 

 tremely small, then larger, but never attaining to the third magnitude. 

 Between 1677 and 1682 it decreased to the sixth magnitude, and as such 

 it has remained in the heavens. Sir John Herschel classes it among the 

 variable stars, in which he diffei*s from Argelander. 



(s) After the star of 1572 in Cassiopeia, the most famous of the 7ieio 

 stars is that of 1604 in Ophiuchus (R. A. 259° 42'; and S. Decl. 21° 15', 

 for 1800). With each of these stars a great name is associated. The 

 star in the right foot of Ophiuchus was originally discovered, on the 10th 

 of October, 1604, not by Kepler himself, but by his pupil, the Bohemian 

 astronomer, John Bronowski, It was larger than all stars of the first 

 order, greater than Jupiter and Saturn, but smaller than Venus. Her- 

 licius asserts that he had previously seen it on the 27th of September. 

 Its brilliancy was less than that of the new star discovered by Tycho 

 Brahe in 1572. Moreover, unlike the latter, it was not discernible in 

 the daytime. But its scintillation was considerably greater, and espe- 



