[OpenLayers-Users] Vector feature projection

[Leigh Holcombe]

Hello,
I'm trying to add some WGS84 points to a spherical mercator map.  After 
studying examples and reading some documentation, I've been led to 
believe that the following code should work.  And yet, it does not.

     var wgs84 = new OpenLayers.Projection("EPSG:4326");
     var sphermerc = new OpenLayers.Projection("900913");
// vector points overlay
     var pointslayer = new OpenLayers.Layer.Vector("Points Layer", {
         styleMap: stylepoint,
         displayInLayerSwitcher: false
     });
// define the points
     var start = new OpenLayers.Geometry.Point(-157, 21);
     start.transform(wgs84, sphermerc);
     var startfeature = new OpenLayers.Feature.Vector(start);
     pointslayer.addFeatures([startfeature]);

map.addLayer(pointslayer);

This isn't all of the code, but I'm pretty sure it's the only part that 
isn't working.  I think the reason I can't figure this out is that I 
don't quite understand how transforming "in place" works.  Which version 
of 'start' is being passed to OpenLayers.Feature.Vector: the original, 
or the transformed?

Code ideas and/or explanatory speeches (of any length) would be greatly 
appreciated.

Thank you,
Leigh Holcombe