70 COKRESPONDENCE ON ASTRONOMICAL ANNOUNCEMENTS. 



either have not carefully enough read the articles of the programme, or 

 had forgotten them. The complaints that have come to my knowledge 

 from abroad have all been in regard to certain comet announcements 

 telegraphed from this side, and not worded in accordance with the rules 

 of the programme. On the other hand I had to remind the Berlin astron- 

 omers (and also those at the Washington observatory) that the time 

 for the i^osition is the "following midnight," while they mistook for it 

 the hour and minute of sending from Washington, added by the teleg- 

 rapher. The circular which you have prepared will prevent for the 

 future these and similar mistakes. 



0. H. F. Peters. 



Letter from the Litclijield Observatory, Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y, 

 December 21, 1880, to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Dear Sir : I have sent to the " Astronom. Nachrichten, " as yon per- 

 mitted me to do, an article in explanation and elucidation of the form 

 of dispatches we have used, and of the additions that have been made 

 in the new edition. 



As you have still under consideration the publication of this revised 

 programme (I infer so from your last letter), I inclose here a compari- 

 son, which shows that our form requires only 16 words, while that pre- 

 sented by Dr. Gould requires 26 [or, more correctly, 27] ; and it is to 

 be remarked besides that the latter never can have less, because the 

 " noughts " always must be inserted, while ours has usually less than 16 

 words. 



Yours, very truly, 



G. H. F. Peters. 



EXAMPLE. 



Comet discovered by Swift Oct. 12. Place B. A. = 2 hours 23 min- 

 utes 7 and decl = -f So© 2' at 7 hours Green, m. t. Motion — 1 minute 

 .2 in right ascension and -f 8' in decl. — 12th mag." 



DISPATCH. 



"Comet Swift [one two October nought seven ascension nought] two 

 twenty [two] three forty [seven] north [three] thirty live [nought] two 

 [minus one two] north (* ) eight [mag.] [one two] twelfth Tuesday." 



The dispatch as here proposed has 26 words — 27 if written by the 

 rules — while in our form it requires only 16 in all. 



Letter from the Smithsonian Institution, November 30, 1880, to Sir George 

 B. Airy, director of the Observatory, Greenwich, England. 



Sir : Herewith we send you a proof copy of a revised circular in re- 

 gard to the telegraphic announcement of astronomical discoveries, which 



* Nought, by rule. 



