ASTRONOMY. 383 



convenient method than the usual one of giving the year and fraction 

 of a year. — (E. W. Maunder in The Observatory, February, 1883.) 



Harvard College Observatory measures of double stars. — " Micrometrie 

 measurements of double stars 1 ' in vol. xm, part i, of "Annals of the 

 Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College." This is a catalogue 

 of measures of about 350 stars in upwards of one thousand sets, made 

 ■with the 15-inch refractor at Harvard College, chiefly in the years 1SG6- 

 1872, under the direction of Professor Winlock, but including a few 

 obtained by the Bonds, and by Mr. Waldo, which have previously ap- 

 peared in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sci- 

 ences, aud in the Astronomische Naehrichten. The catalogue includes 

 nearly all the more interesting binaries and many difficult objects. In 

 addition, Professor Pickering publishes a list of 179 double stars dis- 

 covered at Harvard College Observatory, some of which have been in- 

 dependently detected by Mr. S. W. Burnham ; these were found to a 

 considerable extent during an exploration of the southern heavens, 

 occasionally instituted in the intervals of other observations. In the 

 cases of some of the principal revolving doubles the measures extend 

 to the year 1876. 



Milan Observatory measures of double stars. — -'Measures of the prin- 

 cipal double stars in rapid orbital motion," made in the years 1875-1882, 

 with the Merz refractor of the Observatory of Brera, Milan, by Pro- 

 fessor Schiaparelli — an important series of results which will be most 

 welcome to those who are engaged in the investigation of double star 

 orbits, since, in most cases, there are measures later than any others 

 available at the present moment. — (Nature.) 



A second very extensive and important series of measures of double 

 stars made at Chicago has been published by Mr. Burnham in the 

 memoirs of the Koyal Academy of Sciences. This is printed too late 

 for detailed mention here, but it may be said that this and its preced- 

 ing paper represent more and better work than has ever before been 

 done in the same time and under like conditions. 



THE SUN. 



The eclipse of 1882. — At the present time, when interest is chiefly 

 drawn toward the labors of the astronomers who observed the eclipse 

 of the suu May, 188.'?, from the small islands in the Pacific Ocean, the 

 results of the eclipse of May 17, 1882, obtained in Egypt, have especial 

 significance. These were briefly stated by Dr. Schuster at a late meet- 

 ing of the Royal Astronomical Society. During the progress of the 

 eclipse three photographic instruments were at work; one took pho- 

 tographs of tjie corona itself; a second was a photographic camera 

 with a prism placed in front of it, that is, a spectroscope without a col- 

 limator; and the third was a complete spectroscope. Photographs 

 were obtained in all three instruments. The direct photographs of the 



