﻿310 WILCOCKS' REFLECTIONS ON THE 



subsequently heard that in Germany wagoners and other common people first called 

 the attention of astronomers to this great phenomenon in the heavens; a circum- 

 stance which, as in the case of non-predicted comets, furnished fresh occasion for 

 the usual raillery at the expense of the learned." 



" The new star," Tycho Brahe continues, " was without a tail, and not surrounded 

 by a nebula, and resembled in all respects the other stars, with the exception that it 

 scintillated more than those of the first magnitude. Its brightness was greater than 

 that of Sirius, a Lyra?, or Jupiter. For splendor it was comparable only to Venus 

 when nearest to the earth, that is when only a quarter of her disk is illuminated. 

 Those gifted with keen sight could, when the air was clear, discern the new star in 

 the day time, even at noon. At night, when the sky was overcast, so that all other 

 stars were hidden, it was often visible through clouds not unusually dense. Its dis- 

 tances from the nearest stars of Cassiopeia, which throughout the whole of the 

 following year I measured with great care, convinced me of its perfect immobility. 

 Already, in December, 1572, its brilliancy began to diminish, and the star gradually 

 resembled Jupiter; but by January, 1573, it had become less bright than that planet. 

 Successive photometric estimates gave the following results : for February and March 

 equality with stars of the first magnitude ; for April and May, with stars of the second 

 magnitude ; for July and August, with those of the third ; for October and November, 

 those of the fourth magnitude. Toward the month of November, the new star was 

 not brighter than the eleventh in the lower part of Cassiopeia's chair. The transition 

 from the fifth to the sixth magnitude took place between December, 1573, and Feb- 

 ruary, 1574. In the following month the new star disappeared, and after having 

 shone seventeen months, was no longer visible." 



This star was first perceived by Schuler* at Wittemberg, on the sixth of August : 

 it was seen at Augsburg on the 7th. It was observed by Cornelius Gemma on the 9th 

 of November, and by Tycho on the llth.f 



Cornelius GemmaJ had, on the 8th of November, particularly examined the part of 

 heavens in which the star appeared, but did not see it. Tycho Brahe was sure the 

 star was not visible half an hour before he saw it.§ 



What a commentary do these facts furnish upon the value of negative testimony. 



Many hypotheses have been offered to explain the phenomena of this star. Tycho 

 Brahe supposed it to be the result of a recent agglomeration of the matter diffused 

 through space ; in fact a new formation. What seemed to give weight to this con- 

 jecture was, that all the new stars mentioned by historians had been seen in the 

 vicinity of the milky way. 



*Prof. 0. M. Mitchel, " Planetary and Stellar Worlds," p. 293. 



t " Gallery of Nature," p. 167. 



J" Principia," lib. 3. 



$ " Herchel's Outlines of Astronomy," chap. 16. 



