  Comparing the observed peculiar velocities of the Local Group and of nearby
Abell clusters of galaxies with those predicted using linear perturbation
theory and the 3-D reconstruction algorithm of Branchini \& Plionis (1995) the
value of $\beta$ can be estimated. I show that the anisotropy that causes the
LG motion does not only extend to very large depths ($\sim 160 \; h^{-1}$ Mpc)
but it is also very coherent, which suggests that the value of $\beta \approx
0.21 \pm 0.015$, obtained from the LG velocity, should not be significantly
affected by cosmic variance. Comparing the Abell cluster and QDOT galaxy
dipoles in real space their relative biasing factor are estimated to be
$b_{cI}\approx 3.5\pm0.5$. Finally, using a suitable set of available cluster
peculiar velocities I obtain a somewhat lower value of $\beta\approx 0.15 -
0.17$ but with a large uncertainty ($\gtrsim 0.1$) when weighted by the large
observational errors.
