Finally, we turn to the nebula 826. This is planetary in form and inconspicuous, but Lassell has described it as presenting a most extraordinary appearance with his great reflector—a circular nebula lying upon another fainter and larger nebula of a similar shape, and having a star in its center. Yet it may possibly be an immensely distant star cluster instead of a nebula, since its spectrum does not appear to be gaseous.
CHAPTER VII
PISCES, ARIES, TAURUS, AND THE NORTHERN STARS
"Now sing we stormy skies when Autumn weighs
The year, and adds to nights and shortens days,
And suns declining shine with feeble rays."—Dryden's Virgil.
The eastern end of Pisces, represented in [map No. 22], includes most of the interesting telescopic objects that the constellation contains. We begin our exploration at the star numbered 55, a double that is very beautiful when viewed with the three-inch glass. The components are of magnitudes five and eight, distance 6.6", p. 192°. The larger star is yellow and the smaller deep blue. The star 65, while lacking the peculiar charm of contrasted colors so finely displayed in 55, possesses an attraction in the equality of its components which are both of the sixth magnitude and milk-white. The distance is 4.5", p. 118°. In 66 we find a swift binary whose components are at present far too close for any except the largest telescopes. The distance in 1894 was only 0.36", p. 329°. The magnitudes are six and seven. In contrast with this excessively close double is ψ, whose components are both of magnitude five and a half, distance 30", p. 160°. Dropping down to 77 we come upon another very wide and pleasing double, magnitudes six and seven, distance 33", p. 82°, colors white and lilac or pale blue. Hardly less beautiful is ζ magnitudes five and six, distance 24", p. 64°. Finest of all is α, which exhibits a remarkable color contrast, the larger star being greenish and the smaller blue. The magnitudes are four and five, distance 3", p. 320°. This star is a binary, but the motion is slow. The variable R ranges between magnitudes seven and thirteen, period three hundred and forty-four days.
The constellation Aries contains several beautiful doubles, all but one of which are easy for our smallest aperture. The most striking of these is γ, which is historically interesting as the first double star discovered. The discovery was made by Robert Hooke in 1664 by accident, while he was following the comet of that year with his telescope. He expressed great surprise on noticing that the glass divided the star, and remarked that he had not met with a like instance in all the heavens. His observations could not have been very extensive or very carefully conducted, for there are many double stars much wider than γ Arietis which Hooke could certainly have separated if he had examined them. The magnitudes of the components of γ are four and four and a half, or, according to Hall, both four; distance 8.5", p. 180°. A few degrees above γ, passing by β, is a wide double λ, magnitudes five and eight, distance 37", p. 45°, colors white and lilac or violet. Three stars are to be seen in 14: magnitudes five and a half, ten, and nine, distances 83", p. 36°, and 106", p. 278°, colors white, blue, and lilac. The star 30 is a very pretty double, magnitudes six and seven, distance 38.6", p. 273°. Σ 289 consists of a topaz star combined with a sapphire, magnitudes six and nine, distance 28.5", p. 0°. The fourth-magnitude star 41 has several faint companions. The magnitudes of two of these are eleven and nine, distances 34", p. 203°, and 130", p. 230°. We discover another triple in π, magnitudes five, eight, and eleven, distances 3.24", p. 122°, and 25", p. 110°. The double mentioned above as being too close for our three-inch glass is ε, which, however, can be divided with the four-inch, although the five-inch will serve us better. The magnitudes are five and a half and six, distance 1.26", p. 202°. The star 52 has two companions, one of which is so close that our instruments can not separate it, while the other is too faint to be visible in the light of its brilliant neighbor without the aid of a very powerful telescope.