654 REPORTS OF ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES. 



NoRTHFiELD, Rice County, Minnesota. 

 ■Carleton College Astronomical Observatory. 



Longitude from Washington, 1^^ 4™ 23^85 W. • 



Latitude, 44° 27' 40".77 ]^. 



Authority for latitude : zenith telescope observations of 40 pairs of 

 stars reduced to apparent places from Safford's catalogue. 



Longitude depends on exchange of telegraphic signals between Coast 

 Survey OfQce at Saint Paul and director at Northfield. 



Director: William W. Payne. 



Assistant: C. W. Beers. 



Completed in 1878. Attached to Carleton College central building, 

 6 meters long, surmounted bj' a dome, with two wings, one used for 

 meridian instruments,* the other for the library. 

 Instruments : 



{h) Meridian transit instrument: makers, Messrs. Faittii & Co. ; ai^er- 

 ture, o inches; magnifying powers, GO, 70, and 80 diameters. 



(c) Equatorial instruments : makers, Messrs. A. Clark & Sons; aper- 

 ture of objective, 8^^ inches; magnifying powers of eye-pieces, 50, 100, 

 200, 400, 800. {&) Portable equatorial : maker, John Byrne of New 

 York; aperture of objective 4,3 inches. 



(/) Chronograph : one, made by A. Clark & Sons. 



{g) ClocTis: one mean time; makers, Messrs. E. Howard & Co., No. 

 19G: one sidereal; makers, Messrs. E. Howard & Co., No. 105. 



(/<) Chronometer: sidereal; makers, Messrs. Bond & Sons, No. 374. 



(i) Miscellaneous: The Observatory has been favored by the loan of a 

 good zenith telescope for several months from Lieut. Edward jMaouire, 

 chief engineer in the department, with headquarters at Saint Paul. The 

 large equatorial is provided, with micrometer, with a full battery of eye- 

 pieces. 



Observations during the past year : 



Class instructions and instrumental errors. 



{a) Transit used for time observations. Railroad time is given at 12 

 o'clock, noon, to the Northwestern Telegraph Company for railroad com- 

 panies of this and adjoining States. 



{h) Our time signal daily goes over 1,285 miles of wire. 



(c) (c') Micrometrical measures of double stars. Positions of comets 

 and asteroids. 



(c') Small equatorial devoted to class instruction entirely. 



(?■) Determination of latitude and longitude of the Observatory. 

 Work proposed for the coming year (1881): 



1. Time observations. 



2. Other work essentially as given above. 



Additional information : 

 Printed matter from the Observatory has consisted of articles for the 



