ASTRONOMY. 181 



Palermo. — Ohsorvations of coMit'ts, ])l;niets, smi spots, iiiid meteors. 



Paris. — The iipinojichhig c()in[)letioii of the observations lor the La- 

 laink^ catah)gue has inoditied the phiii of oi)erations carried on with the 

 meridian instrnments for some years past. The hirge transit circle 

 has been used for observations of the sun, moon, minor phxnets, and 

 sneh stars of Lahmde's list still requiring re-observation; the Gambey 

 transit, for observations of the absohite right ascensions of fundamental 

 stars; the Gambey circle and the "cereli^ du jardiii,'' for a re investiga- 

 iion of the latitude, and the latter also for fundamental declinations. 

 Comets, asteroids, nebuhe, and occultations of stars by the moon have 

 been observed with the equatorials. The most important addition to 

 the instrnmental eqnii)ment is the api)aratus adapted to the equatorial 

 coude for determining the constants of refraction and aberration by 

 Loewy's method. Work in astronomical ])hotography is continued by 

 the Henrys. A fine engraving of the Pleiades, compiled from three of 

 their photographs, accompanies Admiral Mouchez's report for 1887. 

 The time service, which of late has uot been entirely satisfactory, is 

 undergoing renovation. 



Parh {Ecole miUtaire). — i\f. Bigourdan gives in the Bulletin Astro- 

 uomiqne (4:497; 5: oO) an interesting historical account, of the ob- 

 servatories of the Ecole militaire, famous for the labors of Lalaude and 

 (FAgelet. 



Prlin. — An interesting historical account of this observatory (estab- 

 lislied in 1279) is given in abstract, in Xature for November 8, 1888. 



PhiJps [Neiv Yorl-). — Tlu^ lied House Observatory was abandoned in 

 1888, Mr. Brooks having become; director of the Smith Observatory at 

 Geneva. 



Poona. — An observatory has been established at the. College of Science 

 with a 10^- inch silver-on-glass Newtonian rellector by (Jiubb, (J-inch re- 

 fractor by Cooke, with photograi)hic, photometric, and spectroscopic 

 accessories. It is intended at present to lestrict tlu^ work of the obs"r- 

 vatory to certain l)ranches of spectroscopic I'esearch, with occasional 

 observations of comets, etc. The curator is Mr. K. I), Naegamvala. 



Potsdam. — Dr. Vogel has applied photography to the determination 

 of the motions of stars in the line of sight, and has obtained most satis- 

 factory results. He proposes to observe regularly all stars (about sixty) 

 that are as bright as 2.5 magnitude. The observations of solar i)henom- 

 ena, sketches, and i)hotometri(; ol)servations of (;omets and planets have 

 been continued with little interruption. Progress is reported upon the 

 " photometric Durchmusterung," which is to take in all stars in the 

 northern hemisphere down to the 7.5 magnitude. The instruments re- 

 quired to enable the observatory to take ])art in the photograi)hic work 

 planned by the Paris congress have been ordered, and luimerous pre- 

 liminary experiments have been carried out for the permanent commit- 

 tee of that body. 



Prague. — Professor Safarik has continued his observations of variable 



