. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal . We have thus here altogether one of the most, if not the most, interesting and important sidereal system in the heavens ; the only one which can compare with it is 'y Virginis, and that has been looked upon as being amongst the double stars what Halley's comet is amongst comets ; but though so well and frequently observed of late years, it was not instrumentally measured so early as a Cen- tauri, and it is a much smaller star, with an orbit of only one-fourth the apparent , and a period of time double the length of its southern rival; so that,
. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal . We have thus here altogether one of the most, if not the most, interesting and important sidereal system in the heavens ; the only one which can compare with it is 'y Virginis, and that has been looked upon as being amongst the double stars what Halley's comet is amongst comets ; but though so well and frequently observed of late years, it was not instrumentally measured so early as a Cen- tauri, and it is a much smaller star, with an orbit of only one-fourth the apparent , and a period of time double the length of its southern rival; so that, while the actual observation for the pur- pose of comparing theory with fact would be eight times more difficult in the case of "y Virginis, and loaded with eight times the probable error of observation, there is the further objection, that on account of the greater length of the period, but a small portion of the orbit could be determined by one observer, or even by one instrument. But the crowning importance of the binary system of CL Centuari, is the accurate determination of the parallax or distance from us, by the late Professor Henderson, as we are thereby enabled to speak,
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Keywords: ., 1850, bookcentury1800, bookcollectio, bookdecade1840, bookyear1849
