CHAPTERS ON THE STABS. 229 



there are several in the southern hemisphere which must to-day be 

 placed in the first rank. 



The history and work of the Cordova Observatory are of special 

 interest. In 1870 Dr. B. A. Gould, who might fairly be considered 

 as the father of modern American astronomy, conceived the idea of 

 establishing an observatory of the first class in South America. He 

 found the President and Governor of the Argentine Republic ready to 

 support his scheme with a liberality well fitted to impress us with a 

 high sense of their standard of civilization. In a year or two the 

 observatory at Cordova was in active operation. A statement of its 

 work belongs to a subsequent chapter. Suffice it to remark here that 

 Dr. Gould continued in active charge until 1885, when he returned 

 home, and was succeeded by Thome, the present director. 



A few years after Gould went to Cordova, Gill was made director 

 of the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope. The rapid growth 

 of this institution to one of the first rank is due no less to the scientific 

 ability of the new director than to the unflagging energy which he 

 has devoted to the enlargement of the resources of the institution. 

 The great fact which he sought to impress upon his supporters was 

 that the southern celestial hemisphere was as large as the northern, 

 and therefore equally worthy of study. 



In any general review of the progress of stellar astronomy during 

 the past twenty years, we should find Harvard University before us 

 at every turn. What it has done will be seen, perhaps in an im- 

 perfect way, in subsequent chapters. Not satisfied with the northern 

 hemisphere, it has established a branch at Arequipa, Peru, in which its 

 methods of observation and research are extended to the south celestial 

 pole. Its principal specialties have been the continuous exploration of 

 the heavens. Celestial photography, photometry and spectroscopy sum 

 up its fields of activity. For more than ten years it might be almost 

 said that a sleepless watch of the heavens has been kept up by an all- 

 seeing photographic eye, with an accuracy of which the world has 

 hardly had a conception. The completeness with which its work has 

 been done has recently been shown in a striking way. Our readers are 

 doubtless acquainted with the singular character of the minor planet 

 Eros, whose orbit passes through that of Mars, as one link of a chain 

 passes through another, and which comes nearer the earth at certain 

 times than any other celestial body, the moon excepted. When the 

 character of the orbit became established, it was of interest to know 

 whether the planet had ever been observed as a fixed star at former 

 oppositions. Chandler, having computed the path of the planet at the 

 most important of the oppositions, beginning with 1892-94, communi- 

 cated his results to Director Pickering, and suggested a search of the 

 Harvard photographs to see if the planet could be found on them. The 



