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LXVII. Notices respecting New Books. 



The Astronomical Observer. A Handbook to the Observatory and the 

 common Telescope. By W, A. Darby, M.A.,F.R.A.S. London: 

 R. Hardwicke. 1864. 



THIS book contains in alphabetical order the constellations visible 

 to an observer in lat. 50° N. Under each head the constellations 

 are first briefly described, the nebula? within its limits are next given, 

 then the star-clusters, and lastly the double stars. The right ascen- 

 sion and declination of each object is given and the magnitudes of 

 its components ; directions are added for finding it with a common 

 telescope. In many cases a brief description of the object is included : 

 e. g.> in the constellation Cygnus, under the head of " Double Stars," 

 **/36.— I9h25m 17s., N.27°40'42". a 3, topaz-yellow ; bl , sap- 

 phire-blue ; dist. 34" # 4. One of the finest of the double stars, the 

 colours in brilliant contrast ; on the Swan's bill, in the base of the 

 cross of Cygnus. Pointed at by a line from Vega carried i°f. y Lyra?, 

 and rather less than as far again." The work will probably be useful 

 to the persons for whom it is designed — amateurs who do not possess 

 an equatorially-mounted telescope. 



Prefixed to the book is an Introduction not easy to describe. We 

 should guess that Mr. Darby first wrote the catalogue, and then by 

 way of introduction jotted down without order or method anything 

 bearing on the subject just as it occurred to him. Accordingly some 

 of the points mentioned are very pertinent, e. g. the description of 

 Sir J. Herschel's mode of observing and registering double stars, the 

 tables of test objects, &c. Other parts are quite the reverse. The 

 sketch of the history of astronomy is meagre and inaccurate. Mr. 

 Darby appears to believe the assertion of Josephus, that "Abraham 

 was a most intense observer of the stars, and the first to bring astro- 

 nomy from Chaldea into Egypt." Shortly after, he informs his rea- 

 ders that " to Egypt, the oldest of nations, belongs the honour of 

 producing the most eminent astronomers of ancient times. Pytha- 

 goras, Euclid, Archimedes, Eratosthenes, Ptolemy, and Hipparchus 

 were all of the Alexandrian school." Now this is really too bad. 

 Mr. Darby had no occasion to go into the history of his subject ; but 

 as he chose to do so he was bound to be accurate in his statements. 

 Surely it is well enough known that the Alexandrian Greeks were 

 not much more Egyptians than Englishmen living in Calcutta are 

 Hindoos. Many of the most conspicuous of them were not so much 

 as born in Egypt ; e. g., Hipparchus was of Nice in Bithynia. Then 

 what are we to say to Archimedes, whose name and fame are so indis- 

 solubly bound up with Syracuse ? or to Pythagoras, of whom at all 

 events we know this, that he lived some few hundred years before 

 the Alexandrian school was founded ? 



