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Hall has seen in the system of 70 Ophiuchi three stars of the thirteenth magnitude or less, at distances of about 60", 90", and 165" respectively. The star 73 is also a close double, and beyond our reach. Its magnitudes are six and seven, distance 0.7", p. 245°. It is, no doubt, a binary. Three star clusters in Ophiuchus remain to be examined.
Hevelius relates that during the four years between October 1672 and December 1676, Mira did not show herself at all! As this star fades out, it changes in colour from white to red. Towards the end of September 1604, a new star made its appearance in the constellation Ophiuchus, or the Serpent-Bearer.
Passing eastward, we turn again into Ophiuchus, and find immediately the very interesting double, lambda, whose components are of magnitudes four and six, distance 1", p. 55°. This is a long-period binary, and notwithstanding the closeness of its stars, our four-inch should separate them when the seeing is fine. We shall do better, however, to try with the five-inch.
There are two other star clusters in Ophiuchus, and within the limits of map No. 12, both of which are more extensive than those we have just been looking at. No. 4211 is 5' or 6' in diameter, also globular, brighter at the center, and surrounded by several comparatively conspicuous stars.
Oceans of Hochheimer, a Throat like that of Ophiuchus: speak not of them; to the infinite Shoeblack they are as nothing. No sooner is your ocean filled, than he grumbles that it might have been of better vintage. Try him with half of a Universe, of an Omnipotence, he sets to quarrelling with the proprietor of the other half, and declares himself the most maltreated of men.
Here suddenly the head a little hides Itself, where all its parts, which are in sight, And those unseen in the same place unite. Near to this head Is placed the figure of a man that moves Weary and sad, which the Greeks Engonasis do call, because he's borne About with bended knee. Near him is placed The crown with a refulgent lustre graced. The Greeks him Ophiuchus call, renown'd The name.
The southern part of the constellation Ophiuchus is almost inextricably mingled with Scorpio. We shall, therefore, look next at its attractions, beginning with the remarkable array of star clusters 4264, 4268, 4269, and 4270. All of these are small, 2' or 3' in diameter, and globular in shape. No. 4264 is the largest, and we can see some of the stars composing it.
This fancy might be followed out like that relating to the deluge; but the present place would be unsuitable for further inquiries in that particular direction. Some interest attaches to the constellation Ophiuchus, to my mind, in the evidence it affords respecting the way in which the constellations were at first intermixed.
When I was giving a course of twelve lectures in Boston, America, a person of considerable culture said to me, 'I wish you would lecture about the constellations; I care little about the sun and moon and the planets, and not much more about comets; but I have always felt great interest in the Bears and Lions, the Chained and Chaired Ladies, King Cepheus and the Rescuer Perseus, Orion, Ophiuchus, Hercules, and the rest of the mythical and fanciful beings with which the old astronomers peopled the heavens.
Her ancestors came in it a pair of humans named Alfred and Melissa Weygand. They were Christian missionaries from a planet called Heaven out in Ophiuchus Sector. Went out to convert aliens and landed here when their fuel ran out." Kennon paused. "That was about four millennia ago.
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