12 ANNUAL RECOKD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



The Hydrographic Office has published "An Observing 

 List of Stars Selected for the Determination of Time in the 

 Southern Hemisphere." This is a list of 408 polar and clock 

 stare, nearly equally distributed throughout the twenty-four 

 hours. The approximate right ascensions and declinations are 

 given (right ascension to the nearest second, declination to 

 nearest 0.1'), with a reference to one authority for each place. 

 It is for use in the longitude expedition under Lieut.-Com- 

 mander Green, U.S.N. 



THE SUN. 



Dr. Dreyer calls attention, in Nature^ to a probable obser- 

 vation of the solar corona A.D. 1030, August 31, and to the 

 fact that Plutarch noticed the faint light round the sun dur- 

 ing a total eclipse. 



Colonel Tennant, R.E., has published two accounts of as- 

 tronomical expeditions in India. The first is a "Report on 

 the Observations of the Total Eclipse of the Sun December 

 11-12, 1871 ;" the second, "Report on the Preparations for 

 and Observations of the Transit of Venus as seen at Rourkee 

 and Lahore December 8, 1874." 



The Report of Messrs. Lockyer and Schuster on the Total 

 Solar Eclipse of 1875 has just been published in the Philo- 

 sophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Bad weather 

 prevented some of the most important plans from being car- 

 ried out. 



Mr. Downing, of Greenwich, has a note on the probable 

 errors in transit observations of the sun, discriminating the 

 results for the two limbs. He comes to the conclusion that 

 for experienced observers the probable accidental error for 

 the two limbs is the same, w T hile for inexperienced observers 

 the second limb is more uniformly observed. 



An observer of experience has been sent by the English 

 government to India to arrange for the founding of an ob- 

 Bervatory for the purpose of taking daily photographs of the 

 sun. This is on account of the recent famine in India, and 

 the supposititious connection between sun-spots and famines, 

 which the government seems to consider of sufficient inter- 

 est to go to some expense in order to test it. This is in some 

 sense a reversion to Sir William Herschel's supposed con- 

 nection between sun-spot frequency and the price of wheat. 



