Abstract
SCHMIDT'S VARIABLE-STAR IN VIRGO.—Prof. Schjellerup, writing from the Observatory, Copenhagen, on August 9, thus expresses himself with reference to a note which appeared in this column on his identification of the above object:—“On the article that is to be found in NATURE, July 31 last, about this star, allow me to make some essential remarks. The author entirely misconceives the sense of my note in Sûfi. It does not at all concern No. 19 Ptol., but only sets out that Lalande 25086 takes that place where must have been the star which Sûfi saw; and I may yet maintain the correctness of the note. I only ask the author to look at Bremicker's map, Hora XIII.; he will find there that Lalande 25086 has just equal distances from Spica and from h Virginis (Ptol. 17), and, what is more, that this distance is nearly one and a half times the distance between Spica and h. Virginis, very conformably to Sûfi's remark in the text: ‘Entre elle (19) et al-simâk (a Virginis) vers le sud-est, il y a environ une coudée et demie, et entre elle et la 17e il y a la même distance. Avec al-simâk et la 17e elle forme un triangle isoscèle, cette étoile étant au sommet.’ It is also to be remarked that Sûfi has before declared the distance between No. 17 and Spica as ‘environ une coudée,’ that is, nearly 2° 20′. What is here said about 19 (Sûfi) does not at all agree with the position of No. 19 by Ptolemy, which is also pointed out by Sûfi himself as follows: ‘La latitude de cette étoile, indiquée dans le livre de Ptolémée, se trouve erronée, parce que, au ciel, elle se fait voir autrement qu'elle ne tombe sur le globe.’” We are glad to print Prof. Schjellerup's explanation of the purport of his note; it is quite possible that others may have interpreted it as we did.
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 30, 397 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/030397a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/030397a0