ASTRONOMY. 187 



12*'. As an experiment, a small almanac is iiublished in Nature in 

 tlio ni'w time. Nothing has been said of any change in the Nautical 

 Almanac. 



France. — No oflBcial action has been taken, and there is no prospect 

 that the nniversal day will be adopted either in the National Observa- 

 tory or in the computations of the Connaissance cles Temps. 



Germany. — Professors Foerster, Auwers, and Tietjen have declared 

 against the universal day on principle, and have announced that the 

 Berliner Jahrhiwh will not adopt it. Professor Krueger, the editor of 

 the Astronomische Nachrichten, is understood to oppose any such change 

 as comtemplated. 



United States. — The policy of the officials of the United States has 

 been vacillating, but the final decision is to adhere to the present 

 mode of reckoning. According to an official publication of the Superin- 

 tendent of the Naval Observatory, the opinion among American astron- 

 omers is against the change. The superintendent of the American 

 Ephemeris has practically announced that no change will be made in 

 the Ephemeris before 1900 A. D. 



A consideration of the above statements leads to the conclusion that 

 the net result of the Conference has been the adoption of the meridian 

 of Greenwich as a prime meridian from which to measure longitudes. 



In this connection it may be of interest to record that the United 

 States has legalized the use of " Eastern Time" (the local solar time of 

 the 75th meridian W. from Greenwich) in Washington, etc., and that 

 the State of Connecticut has adopted this time as standard within the 

 State. 



The mean solar time of the 90th meridian, "Central Time," has been 

 made the legal time within the State of Wisconsin. 



REPORTS OF OBSERVATORIES, ETC 



The article ['■ Observatory " in the ninth edition of the Encyclopccdia 

 Britannica is from the pen of Dr. J. L. E. Dreyer, director of Armagh 

 Observatory, and formerly editor of Copernicus. The article commences 

 with a bri€f introduction giving an outline of the development of ob- 

 servatories, from thedaysof Hipparchus to the present time. A gazetteer 

 of the principal existing observatories follows, in which is given a de- 

 scrii)tion of the equipment and work of each, as full as space permits. 

 A number of English private observatories, now discontinued, are also 

 described, on account of their historical interest and the important work 

 which has been performed at many of them. {The Observatory, Sep- 

 tember, 1884.) 



Reports of English Observatories. — From the Monthly Notices, E. A. S., 

 the following short notices of the activity of English observatories are 

 condensed: 



Armagh. — A permanent fund of $10,000 is provided, whose income 

 helps to support the Observatory. A lOinch Grubb refractor is in 

 process of construction. The new Armagh catalogue i.s in the press. 



