84 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



inch Equatorial (Mebz), under charge of Dr. Knorre. The smaller 

 Meridian instruments are under Dr. Tietjen's care. 



The principal work of the Meridian Circle was the continued ob- 

 servation of the 521 fundamental stars of the V.Y. S. Catalogue. 

 This work was interrupted in 187(5 by the operations for deter- 

 mining the longitudes of Berlin, Vienna, and Odessa from Green- 

 wich. One thousand three hundred and thirty transits and 1328 

 declinations were observed in 1877. 



Various other stars have been added to the observing list, among 

 others 360 stars of Tobias Meyer's catalogue, stars for Mr. Gill's 

 Mars observations, etc. Publications have been made of the work 

 of Dr. Schmidt on the division errors of the small Meridian Circle, 

 and of Dr. Midler on the Micrometer screw of the Equatorial. 



The time-service has been carried on as usual. Clocks are con- 

 trolled at the Time-ball Stations of Neufahrwasser, Swinemunde, 

 Bremerhaven, and Cuxhaven, as well as six different public squares 

 in Berlin. 



The principal work of the Computing Bureau has been, as before, 

 the computation of the Berliner Jahrbuch. Twenty minor-planet cir- 

 culars have been issued. Of the thirty-six planets whose new ele- 

 ments are given in these, twenty-seven were computed in the Bureau. 

 Of the sixty-four ephemerides, forty-seven were computed in Berlin. 



University Observatory, Bonn. 



Professor E. Schoenfeld, Director. 



The Meridian Circle is engaged on the zone observations (zone 

 -f40 to -f-50 c ). Dr. Hugo Seeliger observes at the Telescope ; Dr. 

 Deichmiiller at the Microscopes. 



Five hundred and seventy-four partial zones were observed up to 

 December 31, 1877, and about four hundred and eighty reduced. 

 Comets , &, c, c, and/, 1877, were observed. The Durchmusterung 

 has been carried on, and 70,517 star-positions determined. 



For comparison, the catalogues of Lalandc, Rumker, Piazzi, Schjel- 

 lerup, Bessel's and Argelander's zones, and the Anonymse of Yar- 

 nalFs Catalogue, have been completely reduced to 1855. For the 

 cluster M. 23 (h. 1990) G. C. 434G, a special Durclimuxtcrung has 

 been made. Over 145,000 star-positions have been fixed during 

 1870-77. The variable stars Mira and T Monocerotis were observed. 



Royal Observatory, Brussels. 



F. Quetelet, Director. 



A new Equatorial, by Merz, of 0.088 (=14.96 inches, English) 



aperture, has been ordered, and will be mounted by Cooke. A 



Meridian Circle, similar to the Strasburg Circle, has been ordered from 



Refsold. 



