Io8 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



Letters from Correspondents. 



[^Froni Director H. H. Turner, of the University Observatory, Oxford, 

 President of the Royal Astro7iomical Society. '\ 



Oxford, fuly ij, 190J. 



The Statement deals chiefly with the project for a Southern Ob- 

 servatory, and this reply will be confined to that project. Before 

 considering the points of detail raised in the statement I should like 

 to express an emphatic opinion that there is now, as there has 

 always been hitherto, a great need for assistance of astronomical ob- 

 servation in the southern hemisphere. Various spasmodic attempts 

 have been made in the past to bring our knowledge of the southern 

 hemisphere into better relation with that of the northern. Some of 

 these have been successful, others have failed : and it will help us 

 in considering the matter if we glance at a few instances of both 

 kinds. As unsuccessful attempts I will quote — 



1. The project initiated by a Committee of the Royal Society half 

 a century ago (see Mon. Not., R. A. S., xiv, 129) for a large re- 

 flecting telescope in the southern hemisphere. The Melbourne tele- 

 scope was provided, but very little has been done with it. 



2. The project for a Southern Survey (see Mon. Not., xxiii, 

 p. 147; XXV, p. 118; XXVII, p. 132 ; XXIX, p. 161) which seemed 

 to be making some progress, but eventually died out. 



3. The southern share of the Astrographic Chart, which is 

 lamentably behindhand at present ; three of the southern observa- 

 tories which originally undertook a share never made a start, and 

 two of those which replaced them are in great need of assistance. 

 At others the work is going on very slowly, except perhaps at the 

 Cape Observatory. 



For comparison with these we may cite various successful enter- 

 prises, and it will be seen that they are either of a purely expedi- 

 tionary character or that at least the workers remained in touch with 

 the northern hemisphere. 



4. The expeditions of Halley and Sir John Herschel to the south- 

 ern hemisphere, which successfully advanced our knowledge of that 

 hemisphere at the epochs of the expeditions. 



5. The expedition, in recent times, of Mr. McClean, who ex- 

 tended his spectroscopic survey of the bright stars to the whole sky 

 and incidentally discovered oxygen in /5 Crucis. 



