Abstract
RED STAR IN CETUS.—No. 4 of Sir John Herschel's list of red stars at p. 448 of his Cape Observations is placed by him in R.A. 1h, 19m. 875., N.P.D. 123° 26′ 1″ for 1830, with the remark “most beautiful orange red. Two observations,” and he estimated it 6m. Dunlop in his catalogue of 253 double and triple stars in vol. iii. of the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, gives the position of a highly-coloured object thus: for 1827, R.A. 1h. 19m. 43s., N.P.D. 123° 31′, and calls it “a very singular star of the seventh magnitude, of an uncommon red purple colour, very dusky, and ill-defined;” he made three observations upon it, and notes that it had a small star preceding and another following it. We may presume that these stars are identical, with an error of position on the part of one or other observer, most probably on Dunlop's, whose catalogue contains a number of errors; and it may also be supposed that this is the star spectroscopically examined by Secchi, which he calls No. 11 of Schellerup's catalogue of red stars, but places in 35° 17′ S. declination (A.N. 1737), perhaps through a misprint. In this state of uncertainty as to the star's true place, meridional observation appears very desirable. So far we believe it is not to be found in any catalogue, founded on such observations; it does not occur in the zones published in the Washington volumes 1869–71, a most valuable series, nor in those of Prof. Ragona in the Giornale Astronomico e Meteorologico del R. Osservatorio di Palermo, vols. i. and ii., neither is it found in the southern catalogues of the Cape, Madras, or Melbourne Observatories. Sir John Herschel's place reduced to 1877·0 is R.A. 1h. 21m. 19·0s., N.P.D. 123° 11′ 16″. Secchi says of the star he examined, “couleur rose; spectre à zones discontinues.”
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 15, 281–282 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/015281a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/015281a0