372 Double Stars. 



deep gratification when the starry height sent back the first 

 answer ever vouchsafed to mortals — " Our distance is not un- 

 measurable ; our position is not unapproachable ; and, as far at 

 least as we are concerned, the language of the book of Job 

 receives a definite meaning for the first time since man was 

 created upon the earth, ' Behold the height of the stars, how high 

 they are !' " The quantities thus brought out were, however, 

 very small, and subject, of course, to causes of error which would 

 in some degree render them uncertain ; but by the multiplica- 

 tion and comparison of observations, the limits of such errors 

 can be ascertained, and it may be now stated, with perfect cer- 

 tainty, that the distance of 61 Cygni is measurable, and with 

 much confidence that it amounts to about 52,000,000,000,000 

 miles. Figures thus marshalled speak an almost unintelligible 

 language ; and we may possibly aid our bewildered comprehen- 

 sion by stating that this distance is 550,900 times that of the 

 sun from us, and that it would take a ray of light 8 T 7 years 

 to traverse it,* while it occupies but 8J minutes in reaching us 

 from the sun, at ninety-five millions of miles. And how 

 strange is the impression following from this truth that we see 

 not those stars, and much less others in their background, as 

 they are now. We have not even any proof of their present 

 existence ! Had they been, eight years ago, blotted out of the 

 roll of created things, we should still see them glittering in 

 their accustomed place, by the stream of light which had left 

 its source before their extinction ; we view them as they were 

 in the year 1853, without the slightest record or intimation of 

 their subsequent history. At the same time, what an idea is 

 given us, by the parallax discovered in this star, of the vast 

 dimensions of that great universe in which we live, and how 

 wonderfully does it, even in this one aspect, declare the 

 Creator's power and Godhead ! The sky is crowded with mil- 

 lions upon millions of stars ; and of all that countless host, 

 thousands, probably, for one, are at a distance incalculably 

 greater than that of 61 Cygni ! — It will require a little close 

 attention to guide us to this remarkable pair, but our readers 

 will probably not consider their trouble ill-bestowed. They 

 must therefore imagine a line from y Cygni to a, and draw a 

 similar one parallel to it from s (for these stars, see Intel- 

 lectual Observer for November, p. 304) ; this, at a distance 

 equal to that of a from <y, will fall upon a minute object lying a 

 little p, a 4 mag. and t, 5 mag. ;f two stars near together, which 



* These values were somewhat differently given at first ; the above are the 

 result of Peters' s corrections, applied, according to Bessel's intention, after the 

 latter's death. 



f These are the magnitudes given in the larger star maps of the Society for the 

 Diffusion of Useful Knowledge ; but it is worthy of remark that at the present 

 time t is the brighter of the two. 



