ASTRONOMY. 317 



tiou of which is 12"^ 49.8^ east of Berlin, in latitude 47° 16' 37". 

 The observatory is i)i"ovided with a lOJ-inch equatorially-mounted re- 

 flector by Browning, of London. Observations were commenced in the 

 second week of jS"ovember, and chiefly consisted of the examination of 

 star-spectra. At Keil an 8-inch refractor by Steinheil has been received. 

 Meridian observations here were largely devoted to circumpolar stars 

 + 79<^ to 82°, but according to the present plan the observations will be 

 continued to the pole. Leipsic is now under the direction of Prof. 

 H. Bruns. At Lund the zone undertaken by the observatory was con- 

 tinued, more than 5,200 stars being (determined. From the observatory 

 of Brera, Milan, Professor Schiaparelli makes the welcome announce- 

 ment that the late Baron Dembowski had confided to him all his astro- 

 nomical manuscripts, with the condition that they were to be utilized 

 to the best advantage for the science. His measures of double stars, 

 upwards of 20,000 in number, will be published under the auspices of 

 the Accademia Reale dei Lincei; they are to form four volumes, of which 

 the first will contain the measures made by Dembowski at Naples with 

 his Plossl Dialytic in the years 1852-'58 ; the second and third, the obser- 

 vations made at Galarate on stars of the Dorpat Catalogue, and the 

 fourth, the measures of stars in W. Struve's appendix, the Pulkowa 

 Catalogue, and double stars discovered by ^ther astronomers, more 

 especially by the eminent American observer, Mr. Burnham. The first 

 volume is in course of preparation. At Plonsk Dr. Jedrzejewicz con- 

 tinues, in his private observatory, measures of double stars as his prin- 

 cipal work. The passages of the red spot on Jupiter, by the middle of 

 the disk, were micrometrically determined from November 25, 1880, to 

 February 5, 1881, from 174 rotations. The period was found to be O'^ 

 55™ 34.41^. ± 0.13^, and at the same time the jovicentric latitude of 

 the center of the spot was found — 22°.8, and its length in degrees of 

 the parallel 260.4 ; the third and fourth comets of 1881 and Encke's 

 comet were also observed for position. The physical observatory at 

 Potsdam was in full activity, and, in addition to the more special sub- 

 jects of observation undertaken by this imjportant establishment, an 

 extensive series of observations of variable stars was secured in 1881. 

 From Stockholm Dr. Hugo Gylden notifies his determination of the par- 

 allax of the star Bradley 3077, or No. 240 in Argelauder's Calalogue of 

 250 stars, forming part of the seventh volume of the Bonn observations. 

 The resulting value is 0".283 ± 0".0468. This star has considerable 

 proper motion. Prof. E. Wolf communicates from Zurich the monthly 

 number of days with and without sun spots, and the relative numbers. 

 In the whole year's observing days the sun was free from spots on five 

 days and exhibited spots on 297. 



Trom the report of the director of the Paris Observatory, we extract 

 the following : The asteroids, which have been observed at Paris and 

 at Greenwich for the past fifteen years, are now to be observed at Paris 

 only. It has been found at Greenwich that the bad weather seriously 



