PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



Vol. VII, pp. 1S9-249. July 24, 1905 



DECLINATIONS OF CERTAIN NORTH POLAR 

 STARS DETERMINED WITH THE 

 MERIDIAN CIRCLE. 



By Harriet W. Bigelow, 

 Instructor in Astronomy in Smith College;. 



The stars whose right ascensions and declinations I have 

 observed with the Meridian Circle are those requested by Dr. 

 Auwers in the Astromische Nachrichten, No. 3440. They com- 

 prise a list of 21 stars between 84° 34' and 88° 55' north decli- 

 nation and in magnitude ranging from 5.3 to 7.5. As Dr. 

 Auwers points out, the Berliner Jahrbuch at present gives but 

 10 stars of declination above 82°, 5 of these being above 85° ; 

 and these are not symmetrically placed in right ascension leav- 

 ing several gaps of 2 or 3 hours when an observer would find 

 no fundamental star of high declination available. The pres- 

 ent observations were undertaken to furnish accurate places of 

 additional stars of high declination for use when such are 

 needed in determining instrumental constants. 



The observations were begun in October, 1901, and extended 

 through the period to the end of June, 1903. The right ascen- 

 sions have not yet been reduced. 



The Walker Meridian Circle was built by Pistor and Martins 

 of Berlin in 1854. The telescope tube is heavy, unsymmetri- 

 cal, and shows considerable flexure; the object-glass and eye- 

 ends are not interchangeable, as in many modern instruments. 

 The objective, of 6.3 inches aperture, was examined at the 

 Physical . Laboratory. The focal length, 251.6 cm. or 8 ft. 

 0.8 in., was determined by measurements on the negative unit 



Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., July, 1905. (1S9) 



