or, still better, the five-inch.
Pollux has five faint companions, of which we may expect to see three,
as follows: Tenth magnitude, distance 175", p. 70 deg.; nine and a half
magnitude, distance 206", p. 90 deg., and ninth magnitude, distance 229", p.
75 deg.. Burnham has seen a star of thirteen and a half magnitude, distance
43", p. 275 deg., and has divided the tenth-magnitude star into two
components, only 1.4" apart, the smaller being of the thirteenth
magnitude, and situated at the angle 128 deg.. A calculation based on Dr.
Elkin's parallax of 0.068" for Pollux shows that that star may be a
hundredfold more luminous than the sun, while its nearest companion may
be a body smaller than our planet Jupiter, but shining, of course, by
its own light. Its distance from Pollux, however, exceeds that of
Jupiter from the sun in the ratio of about one hundred and thirty to
one.

In the double star pi we shall find a good light test for our three-inch
aperture, the magnitudes being six and eleven, distance 22", p. 212 deg..
The four-inch will show that kappa is a double, magnitudes four and ten,
distance 6", p. 232 deg.. The smaller star is of a delicate blue color, and
it has been suspected of variability. That it may be variable is
rendered the more probable by the fact that in the immediate
neighborhood of kappa there are three undoubted variables, S, T, and U,
and there appears to be some mysterious law of association which causes
such stars to group themselves in certain regions. None of the variables
just named ever become visible to the naked eye, although they all
undergo great changes of brightness, sinking from the eighth or ninth
magnitude down to the thirteenth or even lower. The variable R, which
lies considerably farther west, is well worth attention because of the
remarkable change of color which it sometimes exhibits. It has been seen
blue, red, and yellow in succession. It varies from between the sixth
and seventh magnitudes to less than the thirteenth in a period of about
two hundred and forty-two days.

Not far away we find a still more curious variable zeta; this is also an
interesting triple star, its principal component being a little under
the third magnitude, while one of the companions is of the seventh
magnitude, distance 90", p. 355 deg., and the other is of the eleventh
magnitude or less, distance 65", p. 85 deg.. We should hardly expect to see
the fainter companion with the three-inch. The princi