ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 373 



distances of his (Saturn's) satellites, it would seem that there is room for two 

 between Ehea and Titan, and for two others between Hyperion and Japetus. 

 If these vacancies are not filled by future discoveries, they must afford strong 

 grounds for believing, that two pairs of secondary planets have been destroyed 

 by mutual collisions, and converted into two groups of asteroids. 



PARALLAX OF THE FIXED STARS. 



M. Strave, the astronomical director of the Pulkowa Observatory, Russia, 

 in his recent annual report says : In my astronomical pursuits the parallaxes 

 of fixed stars have taken a prominent part during the last year, and I think 

 I have made a considerable progress in these researches. Now that the 

 methods of observation are entirely fixed, I am quite sure that if there is a 

 difference of parallax of 0"'l between any couple of stars situated at a dis- 

 tance less than 5' from another, four observations made at the epochs of 

 maxima and minima will be entirely sufficient to prove its existence and to 

 define its amount within very narrow limits. 



A short review of my observations shows that p. Cassiopeia? has a parallax 

 of more than 0"'3, r> Cassiopeia? of more than 0"'2, and Capella of between 

 0"'l and 0"'2. For all these cases, the results obtained by the angles of 

 position agree remarkably with those furnished by the distances. 



The observations of other stars, namely, of a Tauri, a Aquila?, a Andro- 

 meda?, and a Cassiopeia?, are about to be closed ; but to guard me against any 

 pre-occupation, not even the first step has been made for the reduction of 

 these observations. 



REENT OBSERVATIONS ON THE SUN. 



M. Leverrier, in offering a series of tables relative to the sun at a recent 

 meeting of the French Academy, remarked, theoiy alone does not suffice 

 to represent the total of observations made during the last century, not even 

 if account be made of the influence of all the known masses of our planetary 

 system. "I think I have ground to conclude," says Leverrier, "that 

 besides the movement whose cause is known to us, the solar perigee under- 

 goes an oscillation whose amplitude is 60, and the period 66 2-3 years. 

 "When we do not stop at the observations of 1755, 1801, and 1845, but 

 consider besides the intermediate determinations, it will be seen that the 

 greatest equation of the centre also presents a slight secular variation ; and 

 further, that the secular variation of that element cannot be entirely produced 

 by the masses at present admitted into the reckoning." 



OBSERVATIONS ON SATURN. 



At a late meeting of the American Academy, Mr. ~W. E. Bond exhibited 

 some diagrams of the planet Saturn, and mentioned various facts concerning 

 it ; namely, that the inner edge of the rings is constantly approaching the 

 planet itself; that the ball is seen through the rings, which are consequently 

 transparent ; that the color is different in different parts of the rings, the 

 equatorial regions being white, the temperate region reddish, and the polar 



