CORRESPONDENCE ON ASTRONOMICAL ANNOUNCEMENTS. 63 



Rel'erring to your letter bis lordship wishes me to explain that the 

 scheme which he is endeavoring to carry out is the collection of notices 

 of discov^eries of the character indicated from the whole world, in order 

 to distribute them directly amongst observers in the British Islands. 

 In doing so it is intended to supply information to every owner of a 

 telescope in these islands who communicates an address for the purpose, 

 more especially to all those amateurs who may not be in communication 

 with a government observatory. I may add that, in this special en- 

 deavor to aid the owners of small observatories. Lord Lindsay pub- 

 lished and distributed the summary of Struve's Mensume Micrometricte, 

 a work which has already greatly facilitated the observation of double 

 stars, nor has it been found useless in observatories of the first rank. 

 In proof of this, it may be mentioned that it served as a working list 

 for the admirable labors of Professor Pickering and his adjuncts at 

 Harvard College in sidereal i)hotometry. 



From the papers you inclose it is evident that the arrangements of 

 the Smithsonian Institution guarantee the certain intercommunication 

 of astronomical discoveries between the United States and five European 

 government observatories. This still leaves a large field unoccupied, 

 nor does it seem to provide at all (at least in Europe) for the distribu- 

 tion of information from the transmitting end. I would point out, for 

 example, that the news of Schmidt's new star in the Sican was but very 

 imperfectly distributed in Europe. Although Dr. Schmidt telegraphed 

 to Herr v. Littrow, at Vienna, within three hours of the discovery on 

 November 24, 1876 (see Astronomische Nackrichten No. 2113), we first 

 learned of the star's existence from a daily paper at the close of Decem- 

 ber. The Astronomische Nachrichten published the first account on De- 

 cember 23, and, in fact, the earliest observation possible at Dun Edit 

 was on January 2, 1877. In Astronomische Nachrichten No. 2115 Dr. 

 Vogel says that the first news reached him at Berlin on December 3. 



From this it would seem that the European part of the Smithsonian 

 scheme is not at present adapted for the distribution of news on this 

 side of the Atlantic, and hence it arose that Lord Lindsay was not aware 

 that the telegrams of the Smithsonian Institution embraced more than 

 the discoveries of minor planets, with a partial recognition of other and 

 possibly more generally interesting phenomena, or that they were in- 

 tended for general distribution. 



Apart from this, the information reaches the bulk of observers in these 

 islands through occasional notes in the public journals, but very rarely 

 in their telegraphic summaries. Nor are such notes always accepted; 

 e. g., it is well known that the "Times" declined all the earlier com- 

 munications respecting the new star in the Crown. 



These reasons led Lord Lindsay to devise a plan for distributing intel- 

 ligence directly amongst British observers by posted circular, leaving it 

 to corporations or individuals to do the same in other countries if the 

 plan was found worthy of extension. Already the plan has been prom- 



