Our Astronomical Column

Abstract

PARALLAX OF NOVA ANDROMEDÆ.—Prof. Asaph Hall, writing under date February 12, in the American Journal of Science, states that this star was then very near the limit of visibility in the great refractor of the Washington Observatory. It had thus in five months faded down from “the limit of visibility to the naked eye to that in a 26-inch telescope.” Led by the suggestion of Prof. Peters that it would be interesting to test the parallax of such a star, Prof. Hall began on September 29 a series of measures of the Nova, referring it by means of polar co-ordinates to a known star of the elcventh magnitude, distant from it a little less than 2′. The measures do not, in Prof. Hall's opinion, show any proof of a parallax, though they indicate perhaps a diminution of the apparent distance from the comparison star. The variation in the brightness of the star would, however, be likely to affect the measures. The star was too faint for the measures to be continued after February 7.