144 SPECIAL RESULTS IN THE URANOLOGICAL PORTION 



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

 Cygni stella, and everywhere describes it us of the 3rd 

 magnitude. He determines its position in E. A. 30046' ; 

 Decl. 3652': (therefore for 1800) E. A. 30236' ; 

 Decl. + 3727'). The star decreased in brightness, espe- 

 cially after 1619, and disappeared in 1621. Dominique 

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

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

 appear. Revelius observed it again in November 1665 : 

 at first very small, then larger, but without reattaining 

 the 3rd magnitude. Between 1677 and 1682 it was 

 already only of the 6th magnitude, and so it has re- 

 mained. Sir John Herschel places it in the list of 

 " variable" stars, but Argelander does not. 



. Next to the star in Cassiopeia, in 1572, the new star 

 which has gained the greatest celebrity is that which ap- 

 peared in Ophiuchus in 1604. (E. A. 259 42', and South 

 Decl. 21 15' for 1800). With each of these two stars 

 a great name is connected. The star in the right foot of 

 Ophiuchus was first seen, not by Kepler himself but by 

 his pupil, the Bohemian John Bruno w ski, on the 10th 

 of October 1604 ; being then " brighter than any star of 

 the first magnitude, larger than Jupiter and Saturn, but 

 not so large as Venus." Herlicius claims to have 

 observed it on the 27th of September. Its brightness 

 was inferior to that of the Tychonian star of 1572, nor 

 was it seen, like the latter, in the day-time ; but its scin- 

 tillation was much stronger, and especially excited the 

 astonishment of all observers. As sparkling is always 

 connected with dispersion of colour, much is said of its 

 coloured and continually changing light. Arago ( Annuaire 



