188 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1884. 



Dr. Dreyer lias printed (for private circulation) an historical account 

 of the Armagh Observatory in a pamphlet of twenty pages. The front- 

 ispiece gives an autotype picture of the buildings. This account is of 

 much interest, since the history of the observatory extends from 1791 to 

 now. 



Cambridge. — Three thousand one hundred and twenty five meridian 

 observations have been made, 2,4-^3 of which relate to zone stars between 

 25° and 30°. Division errors have been investigated. 



Dunsins]{. — The meridian circle is used to observe stars between 2° 

 and 23° south declination. It is not stated what list is under observa- 

 tion. It appears that the observations are not diflerential in declina- 

 tion since the Nadir gives the zero of declination. 



Edinhurgh. — Is i)ressing upon the Government the printing of the 

 remaining volumes of its star catalogue. 



Glasgow. — Is ol)serving a list of proper motion stars. 



Eeic. — Continues drawings of solar spots, and testing of sextants, 

 watches, and meteorological instruments, etc. 



Liverpool. — Continues its work on the etiect of temperature on chro- 

 nometers. 



The Oxford University Observatory. — The professor of astronomy has 

 issued his annual report to the board of visitors of the University Ob- 

 serv^atory. The attendance of students at the lectures has been greater 

 than at any previous time, and the professor mentions " the phenom- 

 enon " of the regular appearance of two ladies at his lectures on the 

 planetary and lunar theories, at the same time reminding the board 

 what even the approximate mastery of such theory implies. 



On the astronomical work of the staff of the institution during the 

 year, Professor Pritchard's report is a most favoral)le one. He refers to 

 three memoirs on important astronomical questions which have issued 

 therefrom, and which have been printed in the Memoirs of the Eoyal 

 Astronomical Society. These include an extensive memoir by him- 

 self on the "Photometric Determination of the Eelative Brightness 

 of the Brighter Stars North of the Equator," in which his work at Cairo 

 is brought to bear, and a memoir by the first assistant, Mr. W. E. Plum- 

 mer, on the probable motion of the solar system in space, the data for 

 which depend upon Mr. Stone's recent catalogue of southern stars; it is 

 a memoir very similar in character to the well-known one by the late 

 Mr. Galloway. Further, Professor Pritchard has communicated to the 

 Eoyal Astronomical Society a paper, which was read at the last meeting, 

 demonstrating, as he thinks, the existence of small displacements among 

 the Pleiades. Upwards of a thousand measures of the relative bright- 

 ness of stars were made, leaving about the same luimber to be made in 

 the next year. This measurement of all the naked eye stars from the 

 pole to the equator will furnish a Uranometria Nova Oxoniensis, and 

 Professor Pritchard hopes that its publication may be undertaken by 

 the University Press. The measures of the Pleiades having been com 



