The Philosopher’s Stone

Abstract

The objects that interest astronomers are usually there to be studied as, and when, desired (presuming, of course, that the weather does not interfere, and that the time and place are right). Occasionally, however, there are temporary changes in the heavens which can be observed over only a restricted period of time. The year 1866 was distinguished by two events of this latter kind. In May of that year, a bright new star, or nova, flared up in the constellation of Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown. Novae formed a recognised, if infrequent, astronomical phenomenon. It was known that they brightened for a period of some months and then faded again. The importance of this new one — which came to be called in the astronomical jargon T Cr B — was that it was the first to appear since the spectroscope had been introduced into astronomy. Within a few days of the nova being reported, Huggins had examined its spectrum. He found it partly resembled that of an ordinary star, with dark absorption lines, but that superimposed on this there were a few bright lines, some of which were certainly due to hydrogen.