Abstract
A MISSING STAR.—There was a curious, and at the time suspicious, history attaching to an object, shining as a star of 9.10 magnitude, which was compared on several nights with the minor planet Hygeia, while under observation at Washington in the autumn of 1850. This star, which was designated k in a list published in Gould's journal, was missed by Mr. Hind, who reported the circumstance in a letter to Mr. W. C. Bond, of Harvard College, by whom the attention of Lieut. Maury, at that time superintendent of the Naval Observatory, Washington, was called to it. Mr. Ferguson having verified the disappearance of this object on August 29, 1851, a search was made for it on the assumption of it being a great planet exterior to Neptune; the reason for this assumption will be apparent from an inspection of the following positions, which result from the observations on three evenings:—
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OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN . Nature 18, 696–697 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/018696d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/018696d0