REPORTS OF ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATOKIES. ('):U 



Observations during the past year (tVoui Novciuber 1, 

 1870, to November 1, 1880) : 

 {a) Observations for clock error; determinations of absobite ]»laces 

 of 100 stars; observations for dilference of longitude, Caiiil»ridge and 

 New Haven. 



{h') Photometric comparisons of stars visible to the naked eye ; about 

 40,000 observations made. 



(c) {&) Micrometric and idiotometric observations of the satellites of 

 ]\Iars (including 1,103 position angles and 245 distances) ; photometric 

 observations of 41 eclipses of Jupiter's satellites; observations of plan- 

 etary nebuhe; discovery and exannnation of stars with unusual spec- 

 tra ; observations of variable stars, comets, asteroids. 



Work proposed for the coming year (18S0-'81): 

 Continuation of observations now in progress. 



Principal publications of the observatory during the 

 YEAR 1879-80 : 



1. Annals of the Observatory, vol. xi, part i, 1S70. 



2. Annals of the Observatory, vol. xi, part ii, 1880. 



3. Annals of the Observatory, vol. xii, 1880. 



4. Thirty fourth Annual Eeport, 1880. 



5. E. C. Pickering, Dimensions of the Fixed Stars, published in voL 

 xvi of the Proc. Amer. Acad., 1880. 



0. W. A. EoGERS, Standards of length, published in vol. xv of the 

 Proc. Amer. Acad., 1880. 



Cambridgeport, Mass. 

 Frirate Observatory. 



Longitude from Washington, 23'" 49« E., approximately. 



Latitude, 42° 21' 50" N., approximately. 



Director: Fj.F.Hawy^r. 



For the past four years the director has been principally engaged in 

 recording meteoric observations, haviug published from time to time lists 

 of bright meteors, stationary meteors, meteor showers, &c., and has also 

 compiled two catalogues of " lladiant points of meteors," deduced from 

 some 1,100 or 1,200 meteor tracks. Has also collected a series of obser- 

 vations on the variable stars ,> Ceti, y Aqnila, /? Lyr(c, o Cephd, and 

 P Scuti, &c., and, under the head of miscellaneous phenomena, has swept 

 some for comets, &c. Observations have been published in the Astr. 

 Xachrichten, Observatory, Monthly Notices, Science Observer, American 

 Journal of Science, &c. During the coming year, generally the same 

 field of observation will be occupied. Telescopic observations have been 

 principally made with a 3=| inch Bordan, on portable equatorial stand 

 with divided circles, but no clock-work. 



