Double Stars. 193 



In concluding this fragment, let me express a hope that the 

 whole subject of Areograpby may shortly receive that more 

 satisfactory illustration, of which it is certainly capable, from a 

 diligent and extended collation of ancient and modern delinea- 

 tions. This has never yet been accomplished ; and, from the 

 number of observers during the late opposition, it is more 

 practicable than at any former period. Much interest could 

 not fail to attach to a careful monograph of a globe in niany 

 respects so closely resembling our own. 



DOUBLE STARS. 



An interesting communication with which I have been favoured 

 by Dr. Dobie, of Chester, the possessor of a very fine 5| inch 

 object-glass by Cooke, has enabled me to make a valuable addi- 

 tion to our list of Double Stars. The pointer on this occasion 

 is /3 Gassiopece, the preceding, or in its present position the 

 uppermost, star in that constellation : the finder will include in 

 the same field with this star a small open pair, lying at a short 

 distance s p. Each of these is double. The preceding one is 



118. % 3057 (which in astronomical notation implies the 

 double star so numbered in W. Struve's Dorpat Catalogue). 

 3"-64. 299°-53 (1832-29). 7-2 and 9'3 of 2's scale of 12 mag- 

 nitudes, which in Smyth's, of 16, would be about 7f and 10f . 

 Yellowish and ash-colour. Mr. Knott, who has obliged me by 

 a careful examination of these objects, gives measures so closely 

 accordant— 3"-732 and 298°'55 (1863-52)— that the object seems 

 merely an optical one. The other pair is more interesting : — 



119. % 3062. The distance and angle have here rapidly 

 varied, % giving l"-25 and 36°'7, 1823-81 ; 0"'41 and 132°-62, 

 1835-66; 0"-49 and 157°-9, 1837*78 :— Dawes, 0"-954 and 

 193°-43, ^1841-86:— Madler, l"-05 and 220°*73, 1846-53:— 

 Knott, 1"'444 and 265 0, 59, 1863*52 (the results, however, of a 

 single night, and the distance possibly rather wide). This is, 

 therefore, a binary system with a rapid motion, whose period, 

 according to Miidler, will be completed in 146-83 years. Both 

 stars £ makes yellow; his magnitudes are 6*8 and 7*9 : Knott 

 gives 7-5 and 8. 



As these two pairs both lie in the same field, and can both 

 be seen double, with a power of 110 in his instrument, Dr. 

 Dobie justly observes that they form a nice and very easily- 

 found test for moderate-sized telescopes. He could see the 

 whole with an aperture reduced to 3| inches. 



Nearer to /3 Gassiopece, in fact the nearest object in the 

 finder s, a very little f, I have noticed a very curious and beau- 

 tiful little triangle of 8 mag. stars, suggesting strongly the 

 idea of real juxtaposition in space, and consequent connection. 



