An introduction to astronomy: designed as a text-book for the use of students in college. By Denison Olmsted ...

298 - FIXUD) sTAMS.
ftrol1:1 837 to 18.60, is tigtured on Plate Ii. as drawn by ifr,. 1'
1.). Ma-ison, inl 1 84 U."
4,30. I'lte revolutiolls of tlle binary stars 8have assured ius of
this 1lost interestitng fiet, th tat the la (tf gravitiofft ex;tedt./s to
the, frel stas..3efore tltcse discorelices, c ccould not decide,
except by: a fccblc antalogy, tlhat tlhis:law\ t'rantlscntdl(ied t1lo
lboullils of thle solar sy stel. Itdccd, our belief of tlhe: fatct
restedt more upon our idea of unit)y of design ill fall thl}e works
of thle Creator, thlal uplol kany certaill proof; but the revolution of one star aroulld anotlelr, ill ob.dicllce to foiccs whicl
must be sililar to thtose thlat governl thle solar systeml, cstablishecs tlc granld conclusion, that thC \w of gl avitatioll is tru1lly
th]e law of the mIaterial univrelse.
W\e lIave the samlle evidtlce (says Sil John letrselcel) of thle
r'volutions of t}he binar stars about e1ach otlher, tlhat we have of
thllose of Saturn1 and Urttius about tlte sun; aInd thle corre'sponIdCence between their calculated atnd obseCrved place's ilI suchl. clotgated ellipses, inlst be admitted to carry w it-l it; a 1roof of tlhe
prevtdencc of the. Ncwtonian law of gravity il; their systelms, of
the very samte ature tand cogency as thlat of thle calculated and
obsrvcd placces of conets routnd tlhe ctenter of our ow\n.system..l1ut (hc: addls) it is not withl tle revolutions of bodies of a
planlctary or com ctary3r nature round a, solar center thla t we arle
now conccrned; it is withlt that of s llaround stl, cact, peihaps, accompanicl wvith its train of planets and their satellites,
closely shlroudce firol our view by thile splendor of their 1eslective suns, anld crowded into a space, bearing hlardly a
greater proportlion to thieo c,1101normous intorval witbich suepamlates
tilem,l, t ian the distances of tlc satellites of our plancts from
their primaries, befar to their distances fromn tlhe sun itself.
443 1. (Smize ( f the f ixed Stas afpeafi' to /tae a ]:'oiti Mfo
IrON, 01 a l3(eal,m olotirt, s'pac.
0 Sit- John tEGirchel had ot)lputel the orbit of y VirginiS, and had givel it at
62.5 years. Mason, firom a discutssion of all tlhe obt;servations, putlislhed to tlhe
date of 1838, combined wvith his own of 18410, fu(nd that thills period WIt*s too
grt'eat, and assigned as the trule period 171 years. s, which is now acknowledlgedt by
the highest authorities, andt even by lerschel hitself, to h nearly its rual time
of revolution.