Abstract
THE mere equal-surface counting of the stars visible with the same instrument in different sections of the sky gives results open to misinterpretation. Admirable in itself, the method fails because it encounters what we may call “systematic errors” in the distribution of the stars. With incidental anomalies it is fully competent to deal; they should, on a large average, be mutually compensatory; but it breaks down before the clustering tendency which pervades, more or less markedly, the entire sidereal system. Not only are certain parts of space more crowded than others, but the crowded parts are related according to an obvious plan. They do not occur casually. Their effect is then heightened, instead of being eliminated, by multiplied observations.
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References
Bonner Beobachtungen, Bd. v. "Einleitung."
Memorie ie dell' Istituto Lombardo, t. xiv. p. 86.
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CLERKE, A. Photographic Star-Gauging. Nature 40, 344–346 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/040344a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/040344a0