Rough ways made smooth : a series of familiar essays on scientific subjects / by Richard A. Proctor.
- Richard Anthony Proctor
- Date:
- 1893
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Rough ways made smooth : a series of familiar essays on scientific subjects / by Richard A. Proctor. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![planet near Theta, and of this star which he took for Zeta, he says, 'they were probably really brighter [than the 4^ N Sun E S«0 e w • • Plamt • g Planet Fig. 3.—Suggested explanation of Watson's and Swift's observations. and 3^ magnitude respectively], because the illumination of the sky was not considered in the estimates.' Before he had thoroughly examined the pencil marks on his card circles, and made the necessary calculations, he supposed the brighter star to be Zeta, because he did not see the latter star. But when he examined his result carefully, he found that the bright star was set (according to his pencil marks) more than one degree east of Zeta. Writing on August 22, he says, ' The more I consider the case the more improbable it seems to me that the second star which J. observed, and thought it might be Zeta, was that known star. I was not certain, in this case, whether the wind had disturbed the telescope or not. As it had not done so in the case of any other of six pointings which I recorded, it seems almost N * E * Sun 0 Planet I • 2 Planet S W 3» * Planet C Fig. 4.—Showing all the stars observed by Watson and Swift. certain that the second was a new star.' It would be easy to understand why Professor Watson had not seen Zeta, for](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21499809_0066.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
