434 SCIENTIFIC EECORD FOE 1885. 



His priucipal observations were, however, spectroscopic, Professor 

 Yogel utilizing the great light-gathering power of the Vienna equatorial 

 for a detailed examination of the remarkable spectra shown by several 

 faint stars, classified by him under Types II b and III b. • - • The 

 paper also contains a number of observations of nebulae, principally 

 planetary, and is illustrated by four lithographic plates. The second 

 paper contains meteorological observations made in the years 1881 to 

 1883, and the third is a very careful investigation by Dr, G. Miiller of the 

 influence of temperature on the refraction of light through prisms of 

 various kinds of glass, of Iceland spar and rock crystal." {Nature.) 



Prague (private observatory of Professor Safarik). — Fourteen hun- 

 dred and eighty-two observations of 92 stars were made in 121 observ- 

 ing nights. 



Pullcoica Observatory. — " We have received M. Struve's annual re- 

 port, presented May 25, 1885, on the work of the observatory during 

 the year. The great 30-inch refractor had not yet been brought regu- 

 larly into use; but at the time of writing the report observations with 

 it were to be commenced immediately. The observations with the 15- 

 inch equatorial, which for the last forty-five years have been M. O. 

 Struve's own special work, are now undertaken by his son, Hermann 

 Sturve, as he himself has been too much occupied with other work, as 

 well as having been incapacitated by a long illness. Micrometrical 

 measures (98 in all) of the relative positions of lapetus and Titan, 

 Titan and Ehea, and Ehea and Dione have been made during the year. 

 It is hoped that these measures, in combination with those made in 

 former years, will furnish very accurate elements of the orbits of these 

 satellites. Dr. Hermann Struve has also made observations for determi- 

 nation of the parallaxes of 10 stars, as well as determinations of the 

 positions of Encke's and Wolfs comets. The relative positions of 116 

 faint stars, which were occulted by the moon during the total eclipse of 

 October 4, ]884, have also been determined with this instrument. Ob- 

 servations with the great transit instrument have been continued by 

 Wagner, with Wittram as his assistant. The observations (2,348 in 

 number) have chiefly been of the Pulkowa Eauptsterne. With the ver- 

 tical circle Nyren has zealously pursued his work of determining the 

 declinations of the Sauptsterne. Of the 895 observations made 

 during the year, no fewer than 832 were made in both positions of the 

 instrument. In addition to these, 103 observations of the sun were ob- 

 tained. Eomberg, observing with the meridian circle, has obtained 

 1,236 observations in both elements of different stars taken from, (1), the 

 Abo Catalogue; (2), the Pulkowa Catalogue of Double Stars; (3), stars 

 used for comet observations; (4), stars used for determining the scale of 

 the heliometer. With the 4-inch Repsold heliometer Backlund has ob- 

 tained thirty -two measures of distances and thirty measures of position- 

 angles of Jupiter's satellites. Lindemann has investigated the varia- 



