3483), (whose considerable motion might lead to
the inference of great proximity), that a period of nine years and a quarter
is required for the transmission of light from this star to our planet.
[footnote] *See Maclear's "Results from 1839 to 1840," in the 'Trans. of
the Astronomical Soc.', vol. xii., p. 370, on 'a' Centauri, the probable
mean error being 0".0649. For 61 Cygni, see Bessel, in Schumacher's
'Jahrbuch', 1839, s. 47, and Schumacher's 'Astron. Nachr.', bd. xviii., s.
401, 402, probable mean error, 0".0141. With reference to the relative
distances of stars of different magnitudes, how those of the third magnitude
may probably be three times more remote, and the manner in which we
represent to ourselves the material arrangement of the starry strata, I have
found the following remarkable passage in Kepler's 'Epitome Astronomiae
Copernicanae', 1618, t. i., lib. 1, p. 34-39: "Sol hic noster nil aliud est
quam una ex fixis, nobis major et clarior visa, quia propior quam fixa.
Pone terram stare ad latus, una semi-diametro via e lactea e, tunc ha ec via
lactea apparebit circulus parvus, vel ellipsis parva, tota declinans ad
latus alterum; eritque simul uno intuitu conspicua, quae nunc no potest nisi
dimidia conspici quovis momento.
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