REPORTS OF ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES. 



In the latter part of the year 18S0 the following circular was sent to 

 all known observatories in America and to a number of foreign estab- 

 lishments : 



[Circular.] 



Smithsonian Tnstitt-tiox, 



Washington, J). G. 



My Dear Sir: It is desired to present in the annual report of this 

 institution a yearlj- summary of the state and progress of astronomy in 

 the United States and elsewhere. To this end it is requested tliat the 

 directors of observatories, public and private, will return this circular, 

 with the blanks tilled out, and with such additional information as they 

 may deem suitable for publication. 



It is intended that one such circular shall reach every observatory, 

 public or private, in the United States; if any have been omitted it has 

 been by inadvertence, and notice of such omissions is desired by the 

 editor (Prof. Edward S. Holden, U. S. Naval Observatory, Washing- 

 ton, D. C). 



It is proposed to continue the summaries in the future, and it is hoped 

 that the directors of the various institutions will desire to furnish from 

 year to year brief sketches of the activity of the observatories under 

 their charge. In this way a record of current astronouiical work will 

 be kept up, which otherwise it is dilhcult to maintain in the absence of 

 any American periodical specially devoted to astronomy. 

 Very truly yours, 



Spencer F. Uaird, 

 Secretary Smithsonian Institiition. 

 To . 



The information asked for embraced : 1. The Personnel : II. The In- 

 struments employed: («) Meridian circles; (&) (//) Meridian transit in- 

 struments; (c) (c') Equatorial instruments ; (ri) Spectroscopes ; (f) I'ho- 

 tomers and other subsidiary api^aratus ; (/) Chronographs ; {(j) Clocks ; 

 {h) Chronometers; (i) Miscellaneous instruments: III. The character of 

 observations made or contemplated. 



Replies to this circular received up to March 15, 1881, are given be- 

 low, in two classes: Reports of American observatories, and reports of 

 Foreign observatories. Additional information of a statistical nature 

 has been obtained from an article in the Anmiaire de VOhservatoire 

 Eoyale de Bruxelles, 1881; which has been translated by Miss Lockwood. 



In the absence of Professor Holden (at the Washburn Observatory, 

 Wisconsin) Mr. George H. Boehmer, of the Institution, has attended to 

 the arrangement and editing of these Notices. ^^ 



