386 



PROFESSOR C. PIAZZI SMYTH ON THE 



Com- Magni- 

 ponents. nitude. 



A 

 B 



A 

 B 



A 

 B 



A 

 B 



A 

 B 



A 4-0 

 B 8-2 



Colour. 



^ FISCIUM— continued. 



Position. Distance. 



Yellow 



Dingy yellow 



White.. 

 Greyish 



Yellowish (2) . . 

 Warm grey (2) 



AB 63 18 



AB 62 54 

 AB 64 2 



23-1 



22-8 



23-744 



Date. Authority. 



1844-8 Sestini. 



1846-89 Spec. Hart. 



1849-7 Spec. Hart. 



1856-68 Alta Vista. 



1857-93 Spec. Hart. 



1861-02 

 1861 



t] - 



Auwers. 



A 5-5(1) Yellowish white (3) 



B 7-5(1) Greenish grey (3) AB63 20(w/2) 23-42(u/l) 1862-72 Elchies. 



In Magnitude, variable through rather more than one magnitude. 



In Colou7\ also sensibly variable. 



In Position and Distance, nearly stationary, much in accordance with the 

 difference of the proper motions attributed to either star in the British Association 

 Catalogue. These proper motions are absolutely very large, and their non- 

 appearance on the relative places of the stars, indicates them to be, 



In Character, slow binaries. 



Since writing the above, I have become acquainted with the observations of 

 Dr A. Auwers, taken with Bessel's celebrated heliometer, and now inserted in 

 our tabular view ; they are the mean of many observations extending over four 

 years, and will command great weight. As such, it is singular to observe how 

 they strengthen the character of the Elchies observations, of position and dis- 

 tance, making them appear nearly a mean between the best German and the best 

 previous English measures of this nearly " fixed" star-group. In Dr Auwers' 

 discussion of his own observations, he very properly compares them with those 

 of previous observers, and gives the names of six to whom he has so referred. 

 Unfortunately for impartial scientific knowledge freed from the bias of national 

 forms of instruments and modes of observing, the whole of the learned Doctor's 

 references are German, without exception. Yet, notwithstanding that that is the 

 case, it is instructive to observe that the variations of the German results inter 

 se, though depending on large numbers of observations, are not less than what was 

 deduced as the broadest limits of possible error for the Elchies scanty observa- 



