The Double Stars

Abstract

IT cannot be said that a special work upon the double and compound stars has not been long a desideratum. Of the various branches of astronomical science the study of the double stars appears to have formed one of the most attractive to amateurs generally; so far as the reduction of the observations is concerned it involves little calculation, and the observations themselves, are not laborious but admit of being proceeded with at intervals of leisure, with comparatively moderate appliances, at least in a large number, of cases. Many of our amateurs have their daily duties and occupations in other lines, and seek relief in their evenings from the monotony of routine; the observation of the double stars upon a well-arranged list perhaps offers as favourable opportunities for rendering themselves really useful and for doing really good work in astronomy without the labour of one kind or another involved in several other classes of observation as it is possible to find.

A Handbook of Double Stars.

By Edward Crossley Joseph Gledhill James M. Wilson (London: Macmillan and Co., 1879.)

Double Star Observations made in 1877–78 at Chicago with the 18½-inch Refractor of the Dearborn Observatory, &c.

By Sherburne Wesley Burnham (From Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. xliv.)