324 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



XIV. 



MEAN RIGHT ASCENSIONS OF 133 STARS NEAR THE 

 NORTH POLE, OBSERVED IN 1882 AND 1883, AT 

 THE FIELD MEMORIAL OBSERVATORY OF WIL- 

 LIAMS COLLEGE. 



By Truman Henry Safford. 



Presented April 9, 1884. 



The Observatory of Williams College is at present composed of two 

 buildings at some distance apart. The old, or Hopkins Observatory, 

 contains a Clark equatorial of 7^ inches aperture, whose mounting 

 by another maker is old and unsatisfactory, and a Simms transit of 3f 

 inches aperture, of ancient date, and in need of repairs. These instru- 

 ments are employed for practice by the students, to whom the situa- 

 tion in the College grounds is convenient ; but their horizon is much 

 encroached upon by trees and buildings. This is the oldest observa- 

 tory now in use in this country. 



The newer, or Field Memorial Observatory, now consists of an iron 

 house, containing the Repsold meridian circle, with which the following 

 observations were made. The situation of this house is better adapted 

 to observation ; it is upon a slight elevation about a quarter of a mile 

 from the College buildings, with a horizon bounded only by the neigh- 

 boring mountains, Greylock in the southeast, the Taconies of New 

 York in the west, and the hills of Vermont in the north. The instru- 

 ment, of 4^ inches (French) in aperture, was completed in 1881 ; but 

 the building was delayed quite needlessly by the contractors, so that 

 the mounting did not take place until June, 1882, and the observa- 

 tions here given were begun a few weeks later. The intervening 

 time was spent in getting the instrument into proper adjustment, and 

 in tlie business of the annual Commencement. A few observations 

 were made before the focal adjustment ; these have not been reduced, 

 except to rate the clock, which is an old one, removed from the Hop- 

 kins Observatorv. 



