1891.] Results from Observations made at Lovedale, S.A. 29 
{ send a fac-simile copy of the observations of known variables— 
and some suspected ones—on the evening of August 28th. It will 
explain the method of observation adopted here. The same plan 
is adopted night after night, and at the end of each month the values 
-are copied into a journal. The ease with which a rough little chart 
can be made compared with the trouble of writing down the compari- 
sons will be evident. The magnitudes are only relative, or at best a 
rough guess, but the relation between each star is as exact as possible. 
I feel I have written enough, and I have the unpleasant conscious- 
ness that what I have written is not perhaps what would best stir 
up @ more earnest and a more active interest in Practical astronomy. 
Aud perhaps the word of caution that I intend to finish my paper 
~with will not be the most beneficial in that way. 
Before long the observer will find his enthusiasm modified, and 
‘this confidence weakened by an unlooked-for result. He will not have 
taken down many sequences of stars before he will be bewildered by 
the number of variables he has come across. Half the number he 
has examined seem to vary. Now the observer can console himself 
with this fact, that this difficulty is because of the nature of the 
subject not because of the want of care on the part of the observer. 
No less an authority than Dr, Gculd assures us that every star 7s 
variable. These variations however are slight and generally erratic. 
‘The true variable will soon make its presence felt by regular and 
jarge variations, and when one has by real perseverance chanced upon 
a new variable he feels amply rewarded for all his trouble. 
In observing variable stars also the same instrument should always 
be used. Different glasses as well as different eyes give different 
results. One peculiar lens will absorb more red rays than another, 
-so that all red stars will be enfeebled by it. 
At the commencement of this paper mention was made of star 
colours as a fruitful field of research. It isa fruitful field, for it 
embraces nearly the whole southern heavens. Also the charting 
down of the long lines and wisps, and streams, and curves of stars 
that make the sky such an ever-present delight even to gaze up 
at, affords a most interesting study. 
Let any one run his eye along the Milky Way in the ueighbourhood 
of Circinus, Norma and Ara, and he will find an array of long 
majestic sweeps and whirls, of triangles and pentagons, all making 
apa marvel of artistic beauty. What stupendous grandeur is there, 
world linked to world, star to star, and universe to universe, and all 
