288 Occultations. 



matter of surprise, as lie informs us that his dialyte is so 

 injured by the deterioration of its polish, that it may he con- 

 sidered " a wholly ruined instrument •/' an announcement 

 which all lovers of astronomy will hear with sincere regret, 

 and earnestly wish that so diligent an observer may soon be 

 armed with a larger achromatic of English glass, which is not 

 subject to decomposition, or with one of the silvered reflectors 

 which are now attaining such perfection. On the contrary, 

 W Arrest found 3 of these nebulas bright and pretty large, but 

 one decidedly invisible at Copenhagen, and only 2 minute stars 

 in its place. This struck him the more, as he could see with- 

 out the smallest difficulty a feeble nebula, which neither 

 Schmidt nor any one else had perceived except its discoverer, 

 Struve II. It is singular, too, that ^1, in 1785, had pointed 

 out a faint nebula (498 Ijl II.) very near the site of Schmidt's 

 missing object, which, as nothing could subsequently be found 

 there, was supposed to be a mistaken double entry of 18 i§. II. 



Bumker, at Hamburgh, with nothing more than a 5ft. 

 achromatic, found that 68 $ IV. (G. C. 1888), E. A. 9h. 32m. 

 18s. 1ST. P. D. 30° 31' 15", instead of being, as # called it, 

 " considerably faint, very small," might be better described 

 as " very bright, large," and he remarked, on two occasions, 

 that a companion star, 11*2 mag., seemed surrounded with 

 faint nebulosity. 



We must return to this subject at a future opportunity. 



OCCULTATIONS. 



Nov. 11, B. A. C. 6287, 6 mag. 5h. 7m. to 5h. 23m. B. A. 0. 

 6292, 6 mag. 5h. 16m. to 6h..31m. (This will be a noteworthy 

 observation, from the near coincidence of the immersions. The 

 conditions also will be favourable, the moon being a crescent, 

 5| d. old) .—12th, p 1 Sagittarii, 4 mag. 5h. 22m. to 6h. 34m.— 

 14th, 9 Aquarii, 6 mag. 5h. 9m. to 5h. 45m. — 15th, B. A. 0. 

 7620, 6 mag. 6h. 12m. to 7h. 26m. — 16th, 67 Aquarii, 6 mag. 

 5h. 16m. to 6h. 19m. — 20th, f Arietis, 5i mag. 6h. 58m. to 

 7h. 58m. B.A.O. 755, 6 mag. 7h. 48m. to 8h. 50m.— 22nd, 75 

 Tauri, 6 mag. 6h. 43m. to 7h. 38m. B.A.C. 1391, 5 mag. 7h. 

 39m. to 8h. 15m. a Tauri, 1 mag. 9h. 58m. to lOh. 52m. 

 (But for the nearly full moon, a night of especial interest : it 

 also includes a near appulsc to 6 l Tauri, 4£ mag. at 7h. 8m.) — 

 24th, 26 Geminorum, 5£ mag. 9h. 29m. to 9h. 57m.— 27th, o 

 Leonis, 3-2 mag. llh. 13m. to 12h. 9m. (The reader will be 

 struck with the curious run of the hour-numbers in this un- 

 usually full list.) 



