A CHART OF CIRCUMPOLAR STARS. 277 



to a diameter of six inches, and if a magnifier is used, the chart 

 may be reduced to three inches diameter and retain every detail 

 sharply defined. 



The computations for the positions of the stars have been care- 

 fully made and verified, and then compared with those on existing 

 star charts, and when any difference was found, great care was 

 •exercised to ascertain the correct position, and it is satisfactory 

 to be able to state that this process resulted in finding confirmation 

 ■of our positions. 



In some cases the star magnitudes are uncertain, because the 

 best authorities differ ; in these cases the magnitudes given in the 

 Argentine General Catalogue have been taken. 



The form of the Magellan Clouds have been put in from actual 

 photographs taken to the scale of the map, and only the brighter 

 parts are shown — the parts most interesting to the possessors of 

 small telescopes — they look very different from what is put to 

 represent them in other star charts of this region, but these are 

 certainly the forms of the brighter parts. Some slight changes 

 appear in the Milky Way. To my eyes and those of the assistants 

 in the Observatory, the great rift said to begin at Alpha Centauri 

 really extends and includes Beta Centauri, only it is not so dark 

 between these stars. Again the Milky Way clearly encloses the 

 northern parts of Crucis. I have followed the usual course in 

 showing the Coal Sack dark, also in regard to the great rift in 

 Argo, although my photographic examination of these regions 

 shows them to be full of stars. 



It will seem to many that there was no need to add to the 

 number of charts of southern circumpolar stars. Nothing for 

 instance, could be better than the one published by the late Mr. 

 Proctor, for the classes he meant it for — students and observers, 

 i.e., those who know something about the stars or have teachers — 

 there is a wider circle who know less, and these I have endeavoured 

 to reach. 



