INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1876. xxv 



posed by him to have been deceptions. The companion demanded 

 by Auwers' theory lias thus far not been detected. 



BINARY STARS. 



Doberck, of Markree, has taken up the subject of the computa- 

 tion of binary star orbits with much zeal, and to him we owe many 

 publications on this subject. Tisserand, Schiaparelli, and others 

 have contributed to this subject important papers, 



A work by Crossley, Wilson, Gledhiil, and Doberck, jointly, is in 

 course of preparation on the general subject of double and binary 

 stars, their observation, history, orbits, etc. Lord Lindsay has pre- 

 pared for publication an index to W. Struve's double -star ob- 

 servations. Of particular binaries, one of the most noteworthy is 

 Beta Leporis^ discovered by Burnham (distance about three seconds 

 of arc), which has a motion of about 2 a month in position angle. 

 This indicates this star as probably one of the nearer stars, and 

 makes an investigation of its parallax desirable by some southern 

 observatory. 



ZODIACAL LIGHT, METEORITES, VARIABLE STARS, ETC. 



The observations of J. C. Houzeau, of the Observatory of Brussels, 

 and his conclusions therefrom, constitute a contribution of high 

 importance to the knowledge of the zodiacal light. Heis has 

 published the results of his observations of the zodiacal light from 

 1847 to 1875 ; and Serpieri is discussing carefully the observations 

 of Chaplain Jones, U. S. N. Mr. Henry C. Lewis, of Germantown, has 

 made an extended series of zodiacal light observations. Wright, 

 of New Haven, has investigated the spectrum of the zodiacal light, 

 and also the chemical constitution of meteorites. This last research 

 tends to establish more fully the relation between comets and me- 

 teor-swarms. 



The variable stars continue to be observed by Schonfeld, Schmidt, 

 and others; and Schmidt has published during the year many im- 

 portant memoirs on this subject. Schonfeld's second catalogue 

 (Mannheim, 1876), with its copious notes, is of caj^ital importance 

 in this subject. Schmidt has detected a new (temporary) star in Cyg- 

 nus, which, for a few days, was of the third magnitude. 



CATALOGUES OF STARS. 



Among others we note the Coast Survey List of Latitude Stars, 

 2164 in number. Moesta, of Chili, publishes a second volume of 

 Santiago observations, with an important comparison of his work 

 with that of the earlier observers. Stone's catalogue of southern 

 stars has been printed during the year. The Harvard College cat- 

 alogue of 373 fundamental stars is noticed elsewhere. Gould, of Cor- 

 doba, has a catalogue of 12,000 southern stars. The third Raddiffe 



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