638 KEPORTS OF ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES. 



Dir6)tor : F. Hess. 

 Assistant : Mrs. P. B. Hess. 



Instruments : 



[h) Meridian transit instrument: makers, J. Brown & Son, New 

 York; aperture, 1 inch; magnifyiu;:^ power, lOi diameters, with hori- 

 zontal and verti(3al circle, each reading to 1. 



(c) Equatorial instrument: aperture of objective, 21 inches; for ob- 

 servations of the sun, aperture employed, 2g inches; magnifying power 

 ordinarily employed, 50 diameters. 



[g) CIoclc: mean time; mi-ker, G. M. Wheeler, Elgin, 111. 



(i) Miscellaneous : one Trougiiton sextant and artihcial horizon. 

 Observations during the past year (from January 1, 1880, 

 to January 1, 1881) : 



No change in the personnel nor addition to the scant equipment of 

 this station, which can hardly be called an observatory, has been made 

 since last report. 



Sun-spot observations have been continued throughout the past year, 

 and many spots have been recorded. The new variable star r Cephei has 

 been observed a few times, and the space between ^3 Polaris and e Gas- 

 siopeice was frequently searched for other variables. In the course of 

 hap-hazard searches for comets, two nebula3 were found, which may pos- 

 sibly be variable, since they are not given on charts and lists containing 

 much fainter ones not visible at all with my highest magnifying i^ower 

 of 50 times. One of these nebuliE is located in apj)roximate R. A. 21'^ 

 21"' Dec. + 11° 50', the other in Pv. A. 16'' 15™ Dec. — 1° 22', as esti- 

 mated by the eye (unaided by position circles) from neighboring stars. 



Preparations had been made to observe the occultation of the planet 

 Mars occurring here in the afternoon of March 17, but that day having 

 been cloudy here, the observation could not be made. On the 10th of 

 March at 4^^ 20"" p. m., after having found that planet with his small 

 transit, and knowing its exact position, viz : Az. S. 60° E., Alt. 57° 18', 

 the director, his wife, and two of his children could distinctly see it with 

 the naked eye in broad daylight. 



Many meteors and several extensive zodiacal lights and two very fine 

 auroral displays have been recorded. 



During December, 1880, and January, 1881, many extraordinary 

 parhelia^ and lunar halos, and on several occasions similar phenomena 

 produced by the planet Venus, also have been observed here. 



Nothing beyond short notices in our local newspai)ers and an occasional 

 article in the Fort Dodge Messenger on current astronomical events of 

 general interest has been published by me during the past year. 



Tlie work laid out for the present year consists in a continuation of 

 the former miscellaneous observations and the special observations of 

 the local times of the following phenomena: 



1. Beginning of the partial eclipse of the sun, IMay 27, 1881. 



2. The various phases of the total eclipse of the moon, June 11, in- 



