1'22 PROGRESS OF ASTRONOMY FOR 1891 AND 1892. 



JAst of minor plcnids of IS'H — ( 'ontiiuu'd. 



Kmii- 

 ber. 



Kamo. 



310 

 311 

 312 

 313 



31t 



31 r> 

 3i<; 



317 

 318 

 319 

 320 

 321 

 322 

 323 



Discoverer. 



Date of 



dis- 

 covery. 



1890. 



Margarita Charloi.s, at Nicf \ May 



Claudia | do I June 



Pierrctta , -I do j Aug. 



Ciialdauji 



Con.stautia . 



Uoxanc 



Katbarina 



Pbaeo . 

 Brncia. 



Palisa, at 'Vieima Aug. 



Cbarlois, at Nice Sept. 



Palisa, at Vienna 



Cbarlois, at ITico 



do 



do 



do 



Palisa, at Vienna 



do 



Borelly, at Marseilles. 

 "Wolf, at Heidelberg. . . 



Sept. 



Sept. 



Sept. 



Sept. 



Oct. 



Oct. 



Oct. 



Nov. 



Nov. 



Asteroids of 1892. — The further and very successful application of 

 photography to the discovery of asteroids by Dr. Wolf, at Heidelberg-, 

 and by M. Charlois, at Xice, resulted in such rapid additions to the list 

 that the notation of these bodies was thrown into the utmost con- 

 fusion. Hitherto the simple numbering in the order of discovery had 

 been a rule easily ap])lied by the discoverer, but where several aster- 

 oids were found upon a single photographic plate it was not always 

 possible to determine until later observations and computations whether 

 they were really new asteroids or not, and when the planetary char- 

 acter of the object was recognized it was frequently found imprinted 

 upon some earlier photograph. 



It was accordingly suggested, in Xo. 26C) of the Astronomical Jour- 

 Hid, that as a temporary omission of the number is attended with less 

 inconvenience than is caused by the employment of an erroneous one, 

 the numbers for the asteroids after number 322 should be omitted 

 until the dif&cult task of fixing a definite enumeration should be 

 delegated by common consent to some one authority to which all could 

 defer. 



Common consent seemed to point to the Berlin Kechen-Institut as 

 the only j)lace actually in possession of the needful resources for 

 solving the questions of identity coutiiumlly arising, and it was agreed 

 that to avoid further confusion Prof. Krueger, director of the Kiel 

 observatory, the European "Central-Stelle," and editor of the Astro- 

 nomisc'he jS^achriehten, should assign to each asteroid a provisional 

 notation (1892 A, 181)2 B, 18<)2 C, etc.) in the order of its announce- 

 ment to the " Telegraphische Central-Stelle;" and that the definitive 

 numeration should be subsequently un'dertaken by Prof. Tietjen, 

 director of the Rechen-Institut, in Berlin. In this definitive assign- 

 ment of numbers those asteroids will be omitted, for which sufficient 

 material is not available for a determination* of the orbits. 



