Durango semi-weekly herald., 1901-03-04
THE NEW STAR.
Nothing Like It has Been Seen for
Three Hundred Years.

nTCG FIunoFcu
WASHINGTON March "a new
star has blazcd M In the northwestern
heavens. the like OF which haa not
happened for 200 years. The remark.
labe feature Of this star Is Its briilIan.
cy. II Is slightly brighter than the
flrst magnitude and II the equal OF its
ncighbors. Capellc. Aldebaran and
Kigel.
Its color Is n whitisb yellow. Il
sas probably come up To Its great
brightness In II very few days No
such star was noticed by observers oi
that part of the sky week ago. Be
cause OF It's sudden appearance II VIII
probably .e cassed among the tam
porary stars"---stnrs which have
biazed MP suddenly and then grad4ai
~ faded away Az there have been
only eleven such starr noticed Ia the
history OF astronomy. II will be seen
TINT this addition Will occupy an III.
porsant place in this fascinating sci.
ence. But 1t Will be more important
from the true scientists point OF view.
because there has been no temporary
star of equal brilliancy which has ap-
peared since 1904, or since the inven.
ton OF modern Instruments an the use
OF new methods Of study OF such phe
| nomena. II will be of particular in
tercst TO see what the Photographic
plate and especially the spectroscope
will reveal as to the causes OF such Il
bsnrting out OF flame In body which
Ia so fnr away that It mny possibly
take 100 or 200 or 1000 years for It's
| light to reach the earth, travelling ut
| the rate OF 100000 miles second.
What its actual distance from our so.
| lar system is astronomers can only
| guess until more accurate obscrva-
tiona can he made.
OF the temporary stars that have ap-
penred In the past. We know very lit
tie OF the first two. as they appeared
lsi u. c., and 3s9 A. D., respective
Iy This was before the time OF any
accurate observations or knowledge OF
such things. The third star. Tychos
star. which appeared In the constel
latlon of Cnssiopeia In 1879 A. D.
was the most notable OF all. When
first seen II was as bright as the plan
| ct Jupiter and In n short time became
as bright as Venus. 1, was visible
even by day. But In n week or two
than two years II entirely disappear
ed. Somehow an idea spread abroad
without any foundation that this was
the same as the star of Bethlehem,
and many people believed that II
would fcappear In periods of 3li years
40 that the observatories were much
annoyed about 1886 by numerous In.
qniries concerning H.
The only temporary star that has
approached In brilliancy this one oh.
served by Tyobo was one seen by
kopler In 1901, Though not quite
so bright as Tycho's. 1t lasted longer
over two years-but has now grown
so faint that II cannot be identified.
II was In the constellation OF Oph,i.
ehus. With one exception the six
stars since kcplers have been faint
| third, nfth and seventh mngnitudes.
The ninth star. which appeared In
s61. was of the second magnitude.
and after remaining at Its maximum
| wv thi't VI iuuf NhNh IL Ihutu Udrk
TO it's orlginni brightness. that OF a
nine and one-haif magnitude star.
II Afforded good oppurtunit for study
OF Its composition with the spectre
scope. and II was found to be com.
posed largely OF incandescent hydro
| gen.
This new star just discovered this
last week, viii be known as Nova
Persci a new star In the ooustella-
tion of Persei II can be readily rec
oguized, especially because II is al.
most In the center OF triangle form
ed by three bright stars OF Persei
scientifically known as Alpha Persei
Beta Persel and Epsilon persci. This
triangle can be seen by looking toward
the northwest and between and 10
In the evening 1t win be found abou,
half way up from the horizon TO the
zenith.