ASTRONOMY. gl 



OBSERVATORIES OF PORTUGAL. 



From an official document of the Portuguese government we extract 

 the following, which will contain something new to most readers : 



" Portugal possesses three astronomical establishments : The Lisbon 

 Royal Observatory, the Astronomical Observatory of Coimbra Uni- 

 versity, and that of the Lisbon Polytechnic School (in construction). 



"In 1874 the ancient Marine Astronomical Observatory in Lisbon 

 was abolished and annexed to the Naval School, for the practical 

 study of astronomy and navigation in the course of the same school. 

 It has under its charge the regulation of the chronometers and de- 

 termination of error of the instruments destined for the men-of-war. 



" The principal instruments that this observatory possessed were : 

 1 Repsold Meridian Circle, with a focal distance of 1.36 meter, and 

 the objective of 0.10 meter of diameter; 1 Transit Instrument; 1 

 Parallactic Refractor, with a focal distance of 2.61 meters and object- 

 ive of 0.155 meter; and 1 Repsold Universal. 



"The Lisbon Royal Astronomical Observatory 



is indebted to the love of science and liberality of the king, Don Pe- 

 dro V., and to the initiative of Dr. Filippe Folque. The plan of the 

 observatory is similar to the one of Pulkova. Height of the place, 

 93 meters. 



" The collection of instruments of the observatory consists of 1 

 large Equatorial of a focal distance of 7 meters and 0.38 meter of 

 objective aperture ; 1 Prime Vertical Transit Instrument, Struve's 

 system, with 2.31 meters of focal distance and 0.16 meter of aper- 

 ture ; 1 Meridian Circle, with 0.15 meter of aperture and 2 meters 

 of focal distance; 1 Transit Instrument of the system of Oom, with 

 0.07 meter of aperture and 0.78 meter of focal distance ; 1 Parallac- 

 tic Refractor of 1.95 meter focal distance and 0.117 of aperture; an 

 Explorator of 0.64 meter of focal distance and 0.077 meter of aper- 

 ture; a Normal Pendulum of Krille, regulator of electro-chrono- 

 metric apparatuses; several Chronometers and Pendulums; 1 Chron- 

 ograph; Electric Apparatuses; 1 Zigometer; Collimators, Barometers, 

 Thermometers, and Telegraphic Apparatus. 



"The Coimbra Observatory, 



whose establishment is indebted to the Marquis of Pombal, is built 

 alongside of the university building, and is destined principally to 

 the practical teaching of astronomy in the faculty of mathematics. 



" The principal instruments that it possesses are : Equatorial. Me- 

 ridian Circle, Prime Vertical Transit Instrument, and sidereal pendu- 

 lum of Berthoud. 



" The technical personnel consists of a director, two astronomers, 

 and two calculators." 



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