December 9, 1922] 



NA TURE 



785 



Our Astronomical Column. 



A Bright New Star. — A telegram just received 

 (December 4) from the International Central Bureau 

 of Astronomical Telegrams at Copenhagen, reports 

 the discovery of a new star on December 1, by 

 Zivierel of Rumania. The star is given as of 

 the first magnitude, and its position in R.A. i8 h 48™, 

 and North Declination 28° o'. It is situated just on 

 the border between the two constellations Lyra 

 and Hercules, but as many charts differ as to the 

 position of the actual boundary, some uncertainty 

 may arise as to whether the star will be called Nova 

 Lyrae or Nova Herculis. All new stars are situated 

 either in or on the borders of the Milky Way, and the 

 present one is no exception, lying just on the border. 

 The Nova will easily be picked up on a fine night, 

 because it lies just to the south of the conspicuous 

 constellation of Lyra, made prominent by the brilliant 

 star Vega. The constellation is in the north-western 

 portion of the sky in the early part of the evening. 

 The Nova makes very nearly an equilateral triangle 

 w itii the two stars v Lvrae and |3 Cygni and is brighter 

 than both these stars ; a Lyra, or Vega, is of magni- 

 tude 0-14, so will approximate closely to the brightness 

 of the Nova, assuming that the latter is still of the 

 first magnitude. This Nova is the brightest which 

 has appeared since that of Nova Cygni, which was 

 discovered in 1920. 



Comets. — A new faint comet, 1922 d, was dis- 

 covered by Mr. Skjellerup at the Cape on November 

 25, being the second that he has found this year. Mr. 

 Wood has telegraphed the following elements from 

 Johannesburg : they show a strong resemblance to 

 those of Comet 1S92 VI., which are given for com- 

 parison ; as it was under observation for three 

 months without deviating appreciably from a para- 

 bola, identity is impossible, but the two comets may 

 have had a common origin. 



T=ig23 Jan. 1-14 G.M.T. 1892 Dec. 28-1. 

 u = 26o° 31' 252° 42' 



fi = 26i 8 264 29 



i= 23 | 24 47 



log 4 = 9-9759 9'9893 



Ephemeris for Greenwich Midnight. 



Dec. 



V 



log r. log A. 

 0-0141 9-9426 



12. 12 28 56 25 35 



16. 12 52 32 28 39 9-9937 9'955° 



20. 13 16 28 31 20 



The comet should be looked for a little east of 

 south and very low down, just before dawn. It is 

 near e Corvi on December 8, subsequently crossing 

 Hvdra into Centaurus. 



The following is a continuation of the ephemeris of 

 Baade's Comet for Greenwich midnight : this is still 

 a fairly easy object with moderate telescopes. 



R.A. 



ii. 



N. Decl. 



log 4. 



Perrine's Periodic Comet was found bv Rakamuna 

 ..ii Nov. 29 d , 6 h , 50»\ G.M.T. ; in R.A. 8 h 5 m , 32 s ; 

 N. Decl. o° 28'. Its daily motion is +16 sec, 

 south 44'. The probable date of perihelion was 

 about Oct. 20. The magnitude of the comet is 13-0. 



Publications of the Astronomical Society of 

 the Pacific. — The October number of the Publica- ' 



tions of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 

 contains a number of interesting communications. 

 First there is a very clear and concise account of the 

 work of the late J. C. Kapteyn, whom the writer, 

 Mr. F. H. Seares, describes as one of the most distin- 

 guished astronomers of his generation. Kapteyn, 

 as he says, presented the unique figure of an astronomer 

 without a telescope, but reading through this notice 

 it will be seen how he formed programmes for tele- 

 scopic work, and how successfully he discussed the 

 observations made. Director S. A. Mitchell, of the 

 Leander McCormick Observatory, gives a list of 

 the trigonometrical parallaxes of a number of stars 

 of spectrum types A and B (headings of the tables 

 reversed in error), data very much wanted for the 

 initial work in determining parallaxes of other stars 

 of the same type by the spectroscopic method. A 

 summary of the year's work at the Mount Wilson 

 Observatory is given by the director and assistant 

 director, Dr. G. E. Hale and Mr. Walter S. Adams 

 respectively. As announced in Nature of October 7, 

 a 50-foot interferometer telescope is being speciallv 

 built for the Observatory, and it is hoped to determine 

 with it the diameters of about thirty stars brighter 

 than the fourth magnitude. Dr. R. G. Aitken 

 contributes an interesting account of the two notable 

 astronomical meetings, namely the International 

 Astronomical Union at Rome and the celebration 

 of the centenary of the Royal Astronomical Society, 

 in London. In the notes, among other subjects, 

 mention is made of the success of the Crocker Eclipse 

 Expedition from the Lick Observatory. 



Ancient Observations of Aurora. — A.H. Swinton 

 directs attention in the Journal of the British 

 Astronomical Association to some passages in early 

 English chronicles which describe brilliant coloured 

 streamers in the night sky ; in all probability 

 these were displays of aurora?, an assumption that 

 is strengthened by the fact that in most cases the 

 dates of the displays are separated by multiples of 

 the sunspot cycle. They therefore become valuable 

 fur indicating probable dates of sunspot maximum. 

 Working backward from the well-established maxi- 

 mum of 1860-1 with the two assumed periods 

 (A) 11^156 (B) n>'-055, the following tabular values 

 are obtained. The time of year is stated in one case 

 only, namely, 743 Jan. 1 ; in the other cases the 

 middle of the year is assumed. 



Assumption A appears on the whole to be the better ; 

 in neither case is 794-5 well represented ; the original 

 record of this does not give the year in a.d. reckoning, 

 but states that it was " the tenth year of the reign 

 of Brihtrick, King of Wessex." 



Prof. Hirayama's list of Chinese sunspots (quoted 

 by Prof. Turner in Mon. Not. R.A.S., vol. 74, p. 99) 

 i spots on tin- following dates : 1 < >- > Jan. 31 

 (3 spots seen), 826 Mar., 832 Apr. 25, 837 Dec. 25, 

 842 Jan. 3, 864 Feb., S74 Jan., 974 Mar. 6. These, 

 except the second and fourth, suggest dates of 

 maximum in fair accord with the auroral data. 



NO. 2771, VOL. I IOJ 



