June 1, 1886. 



♦ KNO\VLEDGE 



261 



MEASUREMENT OF STELLAR LUSTRE.* 



3 HE Uranomeiria Nova Oxoniensis is a valu- 

 able work, though not equal in accuracy to 

 the admirable survey by Professor Pickering. 

 The method adopted by Professor Pritchard 

 is indeed not susceptible of exact accuracy, 

 though sufficiently accurate for the purpose 

 in view. Seventy thousand instrumental 

 measures were made with the wedge photometer by Messrs. 

 Plummer and Jenkins, the real authors of this excellent 

 work, and all stars visible to the naked eye, from the North 

 Pole to ten degrees south of the equator, are included in the 

 survey. The title-page bears the name of Professor Pritchard, 

 who is supposed to have overlooked the work, and who 

 certainly overlooked certain serious defects in the method of 

 observation. These, however, have been sufficiently indi- 

 oxted by Professor Pickering, whose more numerous and 

 exact observations, actually conducted by himself personally, 

 make his opinion authoritative in such matters. No astro- 

 nomical library would be complete, however, without the 

 excellent work containing the results of the survey of the 

 northern heavens by Messrs. Plummer and Jenkins. 



Mr. Ruskix on the Bible.— Jlr. Raskin has written the follow- 

 ing letter, as his rather questionable tribute to the literature of the 

 ancient Hebrews : 



St. Mark's Day, 1886 (Easter Sunday). 



Sir, — Will you allow me, rather from Venice, in thought, than 

 from poor little Brautwood, in body, to send you one quite serious 

 word, for the close of my part in j^our book discussion ? I see in 

 your columns, as in other literary journals, more and more buzzing 

 and fussing about what M. Renan has found the Bible to be, or Mr. 

 Huxley not to be, or the bishops that it might be, or the School 

 Board that it must not be, &c. Let me tell your readers who care 

 to know, in the fewest possible words, what it is. It is the grandest 

 group of writings existent in the rational world, put into the 

 grandest language of the rational world in the first strength of the 

 Christian faith, by an entirely wise and kind f saint, St. Jerome ; 

 translated afterwards with beauty and felicity into every language 

 of the Cliristian world ; and the guide, since so translated, of all 

 the arts and acts of that world which have been noble, fortunate, 

 and happy. And by consultation of it honestly — on any serious 

 business, you may always learn —a long while before your Parlia- 

 ment finds out — what 3'ou should do in such business, and be 

 directed perhaps besides to work more serious than you had 

 thought of. For instance, I meant this morning only to have 

 written some autobiography, but as it was St. Mark's Day, reading 

 his first chapter, it struck me, if perchance anybody in this pious 

 nation — proposing this year to effect sundry changes in its hitherto 

 all-vaunted constitution — wished in their Easter holidays to baptise 

 themselves, confessing their sins, and abjuring them in a cheerful 

 and hopeful manner — what sort of streams could they find to 

 baptise themselves in near most country towns ? I observe, sir, you 

 have complimented our — for the time reposing— Parliament on its 

 hitherto devotion to business. I have not myself noticed much that 

 it has done to any purpose, except virtually abolishing the Act 

 against pollution of rivers. Which repentance of theirs virtually 

 signifies that the management of the millennium we have presently 

 to look for is to be put in the hands of the sort of British patriot who is 

 ready to poison the air, and the wells, for his neighbours, a hundred 

 miles round, and to sit himself all his life up to his throat in a — 

 [really Mr. Raskin indulges in somewliat strange illustrations, and 

 in his Biblical enthusiasm uses words luipleasing to ears polite], so 

 only that he may lick up lucre from the bottom of it. 



* Uranometria Xova Oxoniensis. A photometric survey of the 

 stars visible to the naked eye at Oxford, carried out at the Oxford 

 University Observatory, by Messrs. W. E. Plummer and C. Jenkins. 

 By [?] Professor Chas. Pritchard. London : H. Frowde. 



t As a sample of the saint's kindly wisdom, one may quote from 

 his letter to Marcella; where, speaking of those who objected to his 

 correction of words in the Gospels, he says, " I could afford to de- 

 spise the poor creatvues (komuncnlos') ; for a lyre is played in vain to 

 an ass." Jerome's kindness was akin to Mr. Buskin's modesty. 



THE FACE OF THE SKY FOR JUNE. 



By F.R.A.S. 



iiiJ i.Sii»»XL^X^ j l'3 ^ 1 F sun may still be examined, as occasion offers, 

 "" "^ for spots and facuhe. Map vi. of " The Stars in 



their Seasons " gives a representation of the night 

 sky. In one sense, however, there is no real night 

 "Si'SVJf'J K'/^y in any part of the United Kingdom during the 

 '■ l^w! -^j®« month of June, inasmuch as twilight persists from 

 sunset to sunrise. Mereurj-, as a morning star, is 

 poorly placed for the observer during the first part 

 of June, in fact, he comes into superior conjunc- 

 or is, so to speak, behind him — at 2 A.M. on the 

 he becomes an evening star, and towards 



tion with the sun- 

 12th. After this, though, 

 the end of the month may be seen with the naked eye twinkling 

 like a star of the 1st magnitude over the W.N. W. horizon. Venus 

 is a morning star throughout June, but is getting smaller daily, and 

 her beautiful crescent has given place to a gibbous figure, which 

 renders her a much less interesting object in the telescope. Mars is 

 becoming an insignificant object, but may be seen in the west when 

 it gets dark as a big red star. He travels from Leo into Virgo, and 

 on the nights of the 22nd and 23rd will be just south of /3 Virginis 

 (" The Stars in their Seasons," map v., or " The Seasons Pictured," 

 plate XXV.) At 10 o'clock in the morning, on the 28th, Mars and 

 Jupiter will be in conjunction. Tlie minor planet Juno m.ay now 

 be picked up to the S.W. of tj Serpentis at the beginning of the 

 month, whence it travels towards f in the same constellation 

 (" The Stars in their Seasons," map vii.) She looks like an 

 orange- coloured star of the Sth magnitude. Pallas m.ay be 

 seen, too, as a yellowish 7th mag. star, very sharply defined. 

 Towards the end of June she will be among some of the 6th mag. 

 stars, in the south-eastern part of Hercules. Jupiter is getting 

 towards the west, and must be looked at as soon as it is dusk. He 

 is in '•quadrature " or 90° removed from the sun at 10 A.M. on the 

 18th; and although he is at far too great a distance to exhibit 

 phases or to look actually gibbous, as Mars does, yet a perceptible 

 shading will be seen on his following limb. He is situated some- 

 what to the east and noith of i8 Virginis, and travelling towards tj 

 (" The Stars in their Seasons," map v., or plate xxv. of " The Seasons 

 Pictured"). Twilight i:c. diminishes the number of fairlj- observable 

 phenomena of his satellites, but enough remain to supply the student 

 with some interesting work. To begin with. Satellite I. will be 

 occulted on the night of the 1st at lib. 36m. P.M. On the 2nd the 

 shadow of this same satellite will enter on to Jupiter's face at 

 8h. 56m. P.M. ; the satellite casting it will pass off Jupiter's opposite 

 limb at lib. 12m., and the shadow 2.5 minutes after midnight. On 

 the 3rd, Satellite I. will reappear from eclipse at 9h. 31m. 27s. ; and 

 Satellite II. begin its transit at llh. 51m. P.M. On the 5th, 

 Satellite II. will reappear from eclipse at 12h. 13m. 26s. P.M. On 

 the 9th, Satellite I. will enter on to Jupiter's face at lOh. 49m. The 

 same satellite will reappear from eclipse on the lOth at 

 llh. 26m. 12s. P.M. On the 11th, Satellite III. will be eclipsed at 

 9h. 5Ira. 53s. p.m. On the 12th, Satellite II. will be occulted at 

 9h. 32m. On the 18th, Satellite IIL will be occulted at 8h. 31m. ; 

 Satellite I. will pass off Jupiter's face at 9h. 29m., as will its 

 shadow at lOh. 4Im. P.M. Satellite IV. will be occulted at lOh. lOm. 

 on the night of the 19tb. On the 23th, the ingress of the .shadow of 

 Satellite I. will occur at lOh. 24m. ; and la.stly, on the 26th, Satellite I. 

 itself w'ill reappear from eclipse at 9h. 44m. 33s. P.M. Saturn 

 and Neptune are both invisible, but Uranus may .still be seen, as 

 soon as ever it is dark enough, just south of t] Virginis ("The 

 Stars in their Seasons," map v., or "The Seasons Pictured," 

 plate xxv.) The moon is new at Hi. 55 3m. P.M. on the 2nd; 

 enters her first quarter at 7h 26-7m. in the morning of the 9th ; 

 is full at lb. 3S-9m. in the earl)- afternoon of the 16th, and enters 

 her last quarter at 4h. 35m. P.M. on the 24th. Four occulta- 

 tions only, and those of small stars, are visible at tolerably con- 

 venient hours daring the present month. On the 9th B. A. C. 4,043, 

 a star of the 6.\ mag. will disappear at her dark limb five minutes 

 after midnight' at an angle of 74' from her vertex. She will be 

 setting at its reappearance. On the 19th, before she has risen 

 B. A. C. 7,145 of the Gk mag. will have been occulted by her bright 

 limb. Later it will reappear at her dark limb at lOh. 18m. at a 

 vertical angle of 186°. On the 20th B. A. C. 7,487 of the 6i mag. 

 will disappear at the bright limb at 12h. 36m. P.M. at an angle of 

 89° from the vertex of the moon. It will reappear at her dark limb 

 at Ih. uom. the next morning, at an angle of 258° from her vertex. 

 Finallj-, on the night of the 23rd, 24 Pi.scium, a 6^ mag. star, will 

 disappear at the moon's bright limb at 12h. 43m. at an angle from 

 her vertex of 87°, reappearing at the dark limb at Ih. 47m. A.M. on 

 the 24th, at a vertical angle of 241°. At noon to-day the moon is 

 in Taurus (" The Seasons Pictiured," plate xxiii.), through which 



