THE COLOIJEED STARS ABOUT KAPPA CEUCIS, 91 



April 4. Several stars entered on tlie map. e and three little stars near 

 it all look red, the two little ones only in glimpses j also, No. 82, little star 

 near C> is blue. 



April 12. Stars splendidly defined on a black sky ; beautiful sight ; 

 colours Tery fine. (, greenish -white ; e, carmine red ; (p, blue ; a, /8, y, 5, 

 yellow, with tinge of green. 5, (p, and € are nearly in a line when micrometer 

 wire bisects S and e ; (^ is less than its own diameter from the wire. Measured 

 No. 11 again, two obs., 12-0^ before and + 377'i<" (south) and 11 magnitude. 

 No. 94 is 0-6 after H, 8 mag., and 28-6" south. No. 100 is (two measures) 

 2-5 after ^ and 43-1" south. I have to-night carefully verified and corrected, 

 where necessary, the positions of all stars put in my eye-draft, especially 

 those in wliich change has taken place. No. 112 is 9| magnitude, and 48'2" 

 south of /8. No nebulous light to be seen. 



May 4. Measured No. 11 again before a 12-5, 12-3, 12-G, 12-3, 12-5, 

 12-5 mean 12-45^ Micrometei-, two readings, 376"3" south. /3 is south of 

 the line, joinmg stars Nos. 103 and 77. 



May 13. Magnitudes of 5 and e equal ; (p is slightly brighter than (, No. 

 87. Entered four new stars. Entered on map the magnitudes of all of the 

 stars. 



May 14. Entered nine stars in map, and examined all the magnitudes. 



One of the first things I found was that, in Herschel's map, 

 the north and south points are reversed, not the inversion 

 right to left, which is usual in Herschel's drawings, owing to the 

 use of a front view reflector, but the north and south points 

 reversed. This has eAddently been a mistake, either in the drawing 

 or engraving, probably the latter, as both objects on the map 

 have the same error, and that neither was an error of observation 

 is evident, because at page 15, Cape Observations, line 3 from top, 

 Herschel says of 8 Messier (i.e., the nebulse on the same plate 

 as Kappa Crucis), "three pretty distinct streahs arched together 

 at their northern extremities." In the map this is on the south 

 side. And at page 102, speaking of Epsilon in Kappa Crucis, 

 " south of the red star is one 13th magnitude, ruddy." In the 

 drawing this is to the north. It is strange that Mr. Abbott did 

 not remark this, for he examined the object many times with 

 care. 



My observations extended over the period from March 25 

 to May 14 ; and advantage was taken of the best oppor- 

 tunities during that period for the work, and the results 

 are at first sight so like Herschel's that there seems nothing 

 to justify the conclusion that change has taken place ; but 

 a closer inspection shows a great many changes, of which 

 the most conspicuous of all is in the change between 

 the present and past positions of three stars, JSTos. 11, 

 21, and 28, which have all moved from 4 to 6 seconds, and the 

 star Phi has also moved half a second in an opposite direction, 

 and come nearly, but not quite, in a straight line with Delta and 

 Epsilon, which line, if produced, passes, not through Zeta, but 

 about half-way between Gamma and Zeta ; considerable change 

 has also taken place in Nos. 100, 106, 120, 122, 126, and 



