Bed Star. 275 



in the same line. 4tli. The mountain range on the S.W. 

 presents the same character in both drawings. 



The cardinal points are only approximately placed to indi- 

 cate the general position of the crater and the surrounding 

 objects, and are not to be taken as showing the true bearings. 

 The crater on the N.W., the </> of Schroter, is remarkable. On 

 several occasions I have observed a dark nebulosity surround- 

 ing a dark spot in the middle of the shadow. I am not certain 

 of the precise nature of the crater. 



BED STAB.— DOUBLE STABS.— NEB QL^.—LINNE 

 AND ABISTOTELES.— OCOULTATIONS. 



BY THE EEV. T. W. WEBB, A.M., F.R.A.S. 



It is now many years since, in consequence of a statement that 

 a red star, of remarkable beauty and intensity, was to be found 

 fa in Hydra, I searched that region repeatedly in vain. I was 

 subsequently informed that my pointer should have been de- 

 signated a Hydros et Graieris (better, surely, a Crateris alone, 

 for there is no other Crater, and Hydra, is of itself more than 

 sufficiently extensive). The region being now in sight at a 

 convenient hour, I determined upon a search with my beau- 

 tifully-defining 9^ inch " With " speculum, during one of the 

 very few evenings (March 27) which have admitted of the 

 employment of a telescope during many weeks. The position 

 of Crater, near the meridian, was easily made out, as a group 

 not many degrees above the horizon, preceding the four con- 

 spicuous stars of Corviis, which in turn precede, though at a 

 much lower elevation, the brilliant Spica. It composes a long 

 and rather narrow trapezium, extended E. and W., and formed 

 by two unequal lines, of two stars each, the lower line being 

 shorter than the upper at its W. end. The star, whose dis- 

 placement towards the left, so to speak, turns into a trapezium 

 what would have been a parallelogram, is the a in question. 

 But it certainly does not deserve that appellation. Of the four 

 stars (as far as a rapid comparison enables me to speak) 

 the brightest was the uppermost to the W. ; „ this, however, 

 though included in Crater in the larger maps of the S.D.U.K., 

 and marked there with Flamsteed's figure 4, as belonging to 

 that asterism, is referred by Argelander, one of the highest 

 authorities, to Hydra : but the 2nd in the upper line, $ Crateris, 

 is much superior to a, and 7, to the left below, about equal to 

 it. It has been shown that Bayer, whose Greek designation 



