. Crimson Star. 149 



wall, and as lie had never seen anything of the kind during the 

 observations of eleven years, he inferred that the former was 

 probably some temporary appearance in the lunar atmosphere, 

 and that the latter had previously been hidden from some simi- 

 lar cause. Here he seems to have been mistaken. The latter 

 — the two mountains, appear in B. and M. and L. : but further 

 from the ring : the former I saw, 1826, May 15, and frequently 

 since, and anybody may see it readily who looks under proper 

 illumination. But if long missed by Schr., it was mistaken 

 by B. and M. for part of a crater-ring ; and even their larger 

 drawing does not give its character well, as a ridge gradually 

 ascending till it joins the top of the wall. 



On the whole, Cassini would form an admirable object for 

 amateur study. Its character is intrinsically interesting; it 

 lies in a very convenient position ; it is simple in form and easy 

 of delineation ; and though it has been many times meddled 

 with, it has evidently never had complete justice done to it* 

 It should be drawn under many angles of incident light ; and 

 not only its morning and evening illumination should be care- 

 fully represented, but the peculiar local colouring of its noon- 

 day aspect. Such a monograph could hardly fail to be alike 

 improving to the student, and valuable as an addition to 

 " selenotopography." 



CEIMSON STAB. 



A remarkable specimen of a red star may now be found 

 with little trouble. JRegulus, or a Leonis (which, by the way, 

 though rated 1 mag. seems hardly entitled to the distinction), 

 forms a large obtuse-angled triangle with two attendants : 

 one, rj, 3 mag., nearly n; the other, o, 4 mag., consider- 

 ably further, p a little s. If we now connect these two 

 by a line, we shall find, about £ of the distance from o 

 towards 77, a 6 mag. star, 18, just visible to the naked eye in 

 clear air : a little sf this, in the finder, is a small group of 

 four stars, one of which is the crimson star E Leonis ; so called 

 as being variable, according to Argelander's mode, now gene- 

 rally adopted, of designating such objects by some of the later 

 letters of the Eoman alphabet. Its colour is very fine, though 

 not so intense as that of R Leporis, with which we hope many 

 of our readers are by this time acquainted.* 



In looking at it in a former season, I was struck with a 

 curious effect of contrast in colour. The celebrated binary 

 7 Leonis (104 of our list) has just s of it a 6 mag. star, 40. 

 This in the finder had struck me as being of a pale blue 

 verging to lilac, when, on examining it with the 5-A -inch achro- 



* Intellectual Observer, ix. 17G. 



