214 COSMOS. 



light must have been extraordinary, since the Chinese Record 

 appends the remark, "a star as large as the sun!" 



(<?) On the 1st of July, 1584, not far from TT of Scorpio; 

 also a Chinese observation. 



fr) 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 celestial globe testifies, to draw atten- 

 tion 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 observe it till two years later, and indeed (what is 

 the more surprising, since the star was of the 3rd magni- 

 tude) then first heard of its existence. He thus writes : 

 ''Cum mense Maio, anni 1602, primum litteris monerer de 

 novo Cygni phsenomeno." (Kepler, De Stella nova tertii 

 honoris in Cygno, 1606, which is appended to the work De 

 Stella nova in Serpent., pp. 152, 154, 164, and 167.) In 

 Kepler's treatise it is nowhere said (as we often find asserted 

 in modern works) that this star of Cygnus upon its first 

 appearance was of the 1st magnitude. Kepler even calls it 

 " parva Cygni stella," and speaks of it throughout as one of 

 the 3rd magnitude. He determines its position in R. A. 

 300 46'; Decl. 36 52' (therefore for 1800: R. A. 302 36'; 

 Decl. + 37 27'). The star decreased in brilliancy, especially 

 after the year 1619, and vanished in 1621. Dominique 

 Cassini (see Jacques Cassini, Elemens d'Astr., p. 69) saw it, 

 in 1655, again attain to the 3rd magnitude, and then dis- 

 appear. Hevelius observed it again in November, 1665, at 

 first extremely small, then larger, but never attaining to the 

 3rd magnitude. Between 1677 and 1682 it decreased to 

 the 6th magnitude, and as such it has remained in the 

 heavens. Sir John Herschel classes it among the variable 

 stars, in which he differs from Argelander. 



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

 of the new 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 



