ASTRONOMY. 201 



in the Sidereal Messenger, and the motliod is to be iqii)lied to tlio Ihir- 

 vard College circle. It need not be said that there iss hardly any prob- 

 lem in practical astronomy whose solution is more important than this, 

 and Professor Kojicrs's final lesults will be waited for with impatience. 



Declino(jrapli.—Dv. Palisa has had a declinojjraph, on the i)lan of 

 Dr. Knorre's at Berlin, fitted to the ll'inch Alvan Clark refractor iit 

 Vienna, and he is observing zones Avith even greater assiduity than 

 usual. He reports himself as satisfied with the working of the instru- 

 ment, which gives positions accurate to about 0^2 and 2". In a zone 

 25™ by 20' 150 stars can be registered. The positions are to be reduced 

 to 1875.0, and this is chosen as the equinox for all the new Vienna 

 maps. Each map is to have a catalogue of its stars accompanying it, 

 which is an excellent addition. Dr. Peters's catalogue of 00,000 zone 

 stars would be of great usefulness, if it were available, as a supplement 

 to his splendid series of celestial charts. 



The price of the instrument is about $150. 



Heliometer. — A new 7-iu(^h heliometer is to be made for the Cape Ob- 

 servatory, for work in charge of Dr. Gill. It wi 1 cost £2,700, and is 

 being constructed by Messrs. Eepsold, of Hamburg. 



ASTKONOMICAJL BIBLIOGEAPHY, ETC. 



Mr. Wiulock is attempting a very extensive bibliograpliic task. 'It 

 is the formation of a complete subject-index to every book in the library 

 of the United States Naval Observatory. The entries are all to be en- 

 tered in one alphabet. This is an immense w^ork and will require much 

 time. If special bibliographies of such subjects as Parallax, Photome- 

 try, etc., could be printed in advance they would be most useful, and 

 the publication of a minute index to the V. J. S. der Antr. GcseU. is a 

 want pressingly felt. 



ASTRONOMICAL, JOURNALS. 



Besides the transactions of learned societies which have astronomy 

 for one of their objects, we have at present the publications of two so- 

 cieties which are exclusively devoted to astronomy. These are the 

 Monthly Notices of the Eoyal Astronomical Society, and the Viertcljahrs- 

 schrift of the German Astronomical Society. Besides these there are 

 several journals exclusively devoted to astronomy, of which the Astro- 

 nomische NachricJiten and the Bulletin Astronomique are by far the most 

 important. 



The Monthly Kotices are chiefly short papers read at the regular meet- 

 ings of the society, and abstracts of the larger ones, which are finally 

 printed iu full in the Memoirs. One number per year gives an interest- 

 ing review of the work of the piist twelve months, and a vrry full ac- 

 count of the proceedings of British observatories. The Vierteljahrs- 

 sc/in/f devotes one of its four annual numbers to reports from the direct- 

 ors of observatories, chiefly iu Germany and America. The other three 



