Saturn's Ring. — Double Stars. — Occultations. 437 



ing greater instrumental and atmospheric advantages. We 

 may therefore here suitably introduce, for the encouragement 

 of the beginner, Sir W. Herschel's remark, already exemplified 

 in the case of Mizar, No. 1 — that when first seen, such objects 

 " will appear nearer together than after a certain time ; nor is 

 it so soon as might be expected, that we see them at their 

 greatest distance. I have known it take up 2 or 3 months, 

 before the eye was sufficiently acquainted with the object to 

 judge with the requisite precision." 



s may be easily found from our pointer, .A returns, being the 

 next moderately bright star n f, or nearly over it as it is declining 

 in the S.W. 



20. | Bootis, 7"-3. 332°-l. (1831-53). 6"-9. 332-9 (1842-42). 

 Secchi found it 6", 1855'419. 3^ and 6|. Orange and purple. 

 This is a very interesting pair, undoubtedly binary, and revolv- 

 ing probably in a highly elongated ellipse, lying very obliquely 

 towards the eye, with a period given by Sir J. Herschel at 117 

 years. It will be found nearly due E. of Arcturus, forming 

 with it and e an almost rectangular triangle, the greater angle 

 being at |. It is also the uppermost of a crooked row of four 

 stars bearing downwards, whose position must be noticed, as 

 we shall call up two more of them. 



21. it Bootis, 6". 99°-3. 3i and 6. White: a ruddy tinge 

 seems, however, to have been sometimes noticed in the smaller 

 star. A beautiful pair, though stationary. An alternate view 

 of this and the preceding object forms an interesting- study of 

 colour. It may appear surprising that with so much general 

 similarity the one pair should be moving, the other fixed, and 

 apparently optical. It is, however, possible that it may be 

 hereafter found to be binary, its motion, much slower than that 

 of £, from inferior density, or from greater mutual distance 

 reduced in apparent amount by greater distance from ourselves, 

 being for the present masked by the position of the companion, 

 at the end of an ellipse foreshortened into a straight line. The 

 concurrence of all these conditions is certainly very improbable, 

 but it is well to be aware of their possibility. 



it is the 3rd star, counting downwards, of the crooked row 

 beginning with £. 



22. £ Bootis, 1"- 2. 127°-3. 3$ and 4£. Bright white and 

 bluish white. Struve asserted that they were alternately vari- 

 able; but Smyth could not perceive it. This pair forms our 

 first instance of a really close object, and is in fact far too> 

 difficult for the generality of small instruments, though its sepa- 

 ration has been accomplished by one of Ross, senior's achro- 

 matics, having an object-glass of only 3f inches. My 3 T 7 F inches; 

 would strongly elongate, but not actually divide it ; this, how- 

 ever, was effected by Dawes's celebrated Ormskirk telescope by 



vol. i. — NO. VI. G G 



