heel of the right foot of 'Ophiuchus huge.' Kepler tells us that it
had no hair or tail, and was certainly not a comet. Moreover, like the
other fixed stars, it kept its place unchanged, showing unmistakably
that it belonged to the star-depths, not to nearer regions. 'It was
exactly like one of the stars, except that in the vividness of its
lustre, and the quickness of its sparkling, it exceeded anything that he
had ever seen before. It was every moment changing into some of the
colours of the rainbow, as yellow, orange, purple, and red; though it
was generally white when it was at some distance from the vapours of the
horizon.' In fact, these changes of colour must not be regarded as
indicating aught but the star's superior brightness. Every very bright
star, when close to the horizon, shows these colours, and so much the
more distinctly as the star is the brighter. Sirius, which surpasses the
brightest stars of the northern hemisphere full four times in lustre,
shows these changes of colour so conspicuously that they were regarded
as specially characteristic of this star, insomuch that Homer speaks of
Sirius (not by name, but as the 'star of autumn') shining most
beautifully 'when laved of ocean's wave'--that is, when close to the
horizon. And our own poet, Tennyson, following the older poet, sings how

the fiery Sirius alters hue,
And bickers into red and emerald.

The new star was brighter than Sirius, and was about five degrees lower
down, when at its highest above the horizon, than Sirius when _he_
culminates. Five degrees being equal to nearly ten times the apparent
diameter of the moon, it will be seen how much more favourable the
conditions were in the case of Kepler's star for those coloured
scintillations which characterised that orb. Sirius never rises very
high above the horizon. In fact, at his highest (near midnight in
winter, and, of course, near midday in summer) he is about as high above
the horizon as the sun at midday in the first week in February. Kepler's
star's greatest height above the horizon was little more than
three-fourths of this, or equal to about the sun's elevation at midday
on January 13 or 14 in any year.

Like Tycho Brahe's star, Kepler's was brighter even than Jupiter, and
only fell short of Venus in splendour. It preserved its lustre for about
three weeks, after which time it gradually grew fainter and fainter
until some time between October 1605 and February 1606, whe