Variability has been suspected in this faint star, and according to Hind it has a hazy, ill-defined appearance about it, which may perhaps suggest that it may be a small planetary nebula, similar to Schmidt's new star of 1876 in Cygnus. A small new star was observed by Hind in Ophiuchus on April 28, 1848. When first noticed it was about the fifth magnitude. It afterward rose to about fourth magnitude, but very soon faded away, and, although still visible in the telescope, has become very faint in recent years. A new star of seventh magnitude was found by Pogson on May 28, 1860, in the well-known star cluster known as 80 Messier in Scorpio. The light of the star when first seen obscured the light of the nebula. On June 10 the star had nearly disappeared, and the nebula was again seen shining with great brilliancy. A very interesting temporary star--known as the "Blaze Star"--suddenly appeared in Corona Borealis in May, 1866. It was first seen by the late Mr. Birmingham, of Tuam, Ireland, on the night of May 12, when it was of the second magnitude and equal in brightness to Alphecca, the brightest star in the well-known "Coronet." It must have made its appearance very suddenly, for Dr. Schmidt, the director of the Athens observatory, stated that he was observing this region of the heavens a few hours previously, and noticed nothing unusual. It rapidly diminished in brightness, and on May 24 of the same year was reduced to nearly the ninth magnitude. It was soon discovered that the star had been previously observed, and its place registered by the great German astronomer, Argelander, as of magnitude 9½, so that it is possibly a variable star of irregular period and fitful variability. When near its maximum brilliancy, its light was examined by Dr. Huggins with the spectroscope, which showed the bright lines of incandescent hydrogen gas in addition to the ordinary stellar spectrum. This implies that the great increase in its light was due to a sudden outburst of hydrogen in the star's atmosphere. Some observers remarked that when viewed with the naked eye it decidedly twinkled more than other stars in the neighborhood, which rendered a correct estimate of its relative brightness somewhat difficult. During the years 1866 to 1876, Schmidt detected variations of light which seemed to show a period of about 94 days, and these observations were confirmed by Schonfeld.