Porz.—On the Southern Stars and other Celestial Objects. 167 
of course, show either that the change in the angle and the distance of the 
two stars of this double is owing to the proper motion of one, or both, of 
the components, or that 0 Eridani is a binary system. The latter alterna- 
tive appears to me to be by far the more probable. 
232 Reticuli of the Melbourne Catalogue is a fine star of a magnificent 
scarlet colour. It is of magnitude 6}. There is a distant companion 
white star of the eleventh magnitude. The R. A. of 232 Reticuli, is 4hrs. 
85min. 15:15secs., and the declination 62° 20’ 0-69" S. The spectrum of 
this star is very remarkable. It belongs to Secchi’s fourth class. The 
typical star of this division is small—invisible, in fact, to the naked 
eye; it is variable both in light and colour; itis a very distinct red, 
ruby, crimson, or scarlet; and its spectrum consists of bands of light, some- 
times containing faint bright lines with dark spaces between the bright 
brands. 282 Reticuli, though so small, gives a fine spectrum when the 
spectroscope is used with the reflector, because the light is not spread out 
over the whole length of the spectrum, but is concentrated in certain parts 
of it. Thus the red part of the spectrum is very bright, but the place of the 
orange is occupied by a very thick black “ bar." The yellow, again, is pretty 
bright, and so is part of the green, but towards the violet end of the spec- 
trum the light is very faint, and the colours are quite cut out for large spaces 
by intervals of almost complete darkness. I failed to notice here what is 
said to be characteristic of this class of stars—a gradually diminishing 
blackness of the bars in the direction of the violet end of the spectrum ; nor 
could I distinguish any bright lines in any part of the spectrum. The study 
and observation of stars of this class is none the less interesting to us, 
because in the present state of our knowledge their spectra are unintelligible, 
for it is generally felt by those who have been in the habit of observing 
them, that there is a great secret of nature waiting to be discovered in con- 
nection with them. Their being for the most part so very variable both in 
light and colour, the strongly-pronounced red colour of all of them, and 
their strange and beautiful spectra, all point to the conclusion, that the man 
who succeeds in “reading the riddle” of the nature and constitution of the 
red variable stars, will have made a very important contribution to our 
knowledge of the process by which suns and systems are evolved out of the 
primordial nebula, or whatever the substance may be, from which such 
systems are formed, and to which, perchance, when their mission is fulfilled, 
they again return. In the meantime these red stars seem to set anything, 
even like rational conjecture, at defiance. 
a Argus (Canopus.)— This great star, the only rival of Sirius, is a 
hydrogen, or first-class star. In its spectrum, the F. and C. hydrogen lines, 
and that near G., are broad and distinct, though less so than in the spectrum 
