216 ASTRONOMY. 



the residue will be utilized for pasture, and for fuel and water-supply. 

 The steep and broken cliaracter of the ground renders a large surface of 

 land necessary for the adequate protection of the observatory from fire 

 and intrusion. 



In order to observe the transit of Venus in 1882, the Lick trustees 

 have secured a 12-inch refractor, made by Alvan Clark & Sons, who 

 are to make a 3G-inch refractor later. A 4-inch transit instrument has 

 been ordered Irom Fauth & Co., Washington, to be mounted in 1881. 

 A plan for the buildings has been made by Professors Newcomb and 

 noLDEN, in which the library, study, computing and sleej)ing rooms 

 are to be attached to the main building, and the dwelling-houses, etc., 

 will be close by, on a shelf of the hill lower down. 



The second volume of Oppolzer's "Lehrbuch zur Bahnbestimmung 

 der Kometen und Planeten" has appeared in October last, nearly ten 

 years after the first volume. Such a w^ork was indeed a desideratum. 

 The book enters into the most minute details, and gives examjjles fully 

 worked out to an extent which neither Watson's excellent "Theoretical 

 Astronomy," nor the shorter, though in some parts more comprehensive, 

 •' Theoretische Astronomie" by Klinkerfues, have attained. 



Mr. Stone having been appointed to the Kadcliffe Observatory, Ox- 

 ford, Mr. Gill succeeded him as Her Majesty's Astronomer at the Cape. 

 Mr. Gill purchased Lord Lindsay's heliometer, with which he had al- 

 ready done such excellent w^ ork himself, and had it mounted on a new 

 stand by Mr. Grubb. He intends to apply this instrument to investi- 

 gations on the parallax of some stars having large proper motions, and 

 to researches on southern star-clusters. Dr. Elkin, of ISTew Orleans, 

 goes to the Cape as assistant to Mr. Gill. 



Prof. HoLDEN has been appointed director of the Washburn Obser- 

 vatory at Madison, Wis., in the place of the late Prof. James C. Wat- 

 son. 



instruments. 



Alvan Clark & Sons, of Cambridgeport, have now on hand, in all 

 the various stages of completion, a most interesting collection of large 

 refractors, to say nothing of a number of glasses of 8 inches or less di- 

 ameter. 



The lenses of the 23-inch equatorial for Prof. Young, at Princeton, 

 are receiving the finishing touches, and have already shown a remark- 

 able degree of perfection. The glass was cast hy Feil. The mounting 

 for this instrument is well advanced. 



A IG-iuch objective for Prof. Swift, of the Warner Observatory, is 

 finished, and the mounting nearly so. This glass is of English manu- 

 facture. 



The McCoRMiCK glass of 26 inches aperture, made at the same time 

 as the Washington refractor, and intended for the University of Virginia, 

 is still in the shop and has been completed for several years, while the 

 mounting requires but comparatively little additional work. 



