Pleasures of the telescope: An Illustrated Guide for Amateur Astronomers and a Popular Description of the Chief Wonders of the Heavens for General Readers — John Shaqi
Pleasures of the telescope: An Illustrated Guide for Amateur Astronomers and a Popular Description of the Chief Wonders of the Heavens for General ReadersServiss, Garrett Putman
Science
Pleasures of the telescope: An Illustrated Guide for Amateur Astronomers and a Popular Description of the Chief Wonders of the Heavens for General Readers
We should look at the double Sigma 616 with one of our larger apertures
in order to determine for ourselves what the colors of the components
are. There is considerable diversity of opinion on this point. Some say
the larger star is pale red and the smaller light blue; others consider
the color of the larger star to be greenish, and some have even called
it white. The magnitudes are five and nine, distance 6", p. 350 deg..
Auriga contains several noteworthy clusters which will be found on the
map. The most beautiful of these is 1295, in which about five hundred
stars have been counted.
The position of the new star of 1892, known as Nova Aurigae, is also
indicated on the map. While this never made a brilliant appearance, it
gave rise to a greater variety of speculative theories than any previous
phenomenon of the kind. Although not recognized until January 24, 1892,
this star, as photographic records prove, was in existence on December
9, 1891. At its brightest it barely exceeded magnitude four and a half,
and its maximum occurred within ten days after its first recognition.
When discovered it was of the fifth magnitude. It was last seen in its
original form with the Lick telescope on April 26th, when it had sunk to
the lowest limit of visibility. To everybody's astonishment it
reappeared in the following August, and on the 17th of that month was
seen shining with the light of a tenth-magnitude star, _but presenting
the spectrum of a nebula!_ Its visual appearance in the great telescope
was now also that of a planetary nebula. Its spectrum during the first
period of its visibility had been carefully studied, so that the means
existed for making a spectroscopic comparison of the phenomenon in its
two phases. During the first period, when only a stellar spectrum was
noticed, remarkable shiftings of the spectral lines occurred, indicating
that two and perhaps three bodies were concerned in the production of
the light of the new star, one of which was approaching the earth, while
the other or the others receded with velocities of several hundred miles
per second! On the revival in the form of a planetary nebula, while the
character of the spectrum had entirely changed, evidences of rapid
motion in the line of sight remained.
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