ASTEONOMY. 157 



library, |1,000 ; repairs to buildings, fuel, gas, furniture, stationery, and 

 contingent expenses, $3,900 ; freight on observatory publications sent 

 to foreign countries, $366. The entire annual cost of the maintenance 

 of the observatory may, therefore, be put at about $58,500 ; — $50,700 

 being for salaries and wages, and nearly $7,800 for other expenses. The 

 item of salaries will vary considerably, of course, with the number and 

 rank of line officers on duty, and it should be borne in mind that sev- 

 eral of the officers are engaged upon work carried on at the observatory 

 as a naval institution. 



The sum of $100,000 is now available for the erection of a new obser- 

 vatorj", and the i^lans prepared six or eight years ago are being revised, 

 with a xjrospect of beginning work upon the new buildings in the course 

 of a few months. The total cost of the buildings is limited to $400,000. 



Warner Observatory.— Dr. Swift has confined himself to the discovery 

 of new nebulse and the search for comets. The instruments are : A 

 16-inch ('lark equatorial, provided with a filar micrometer and many 

 convenient accessories ; a 4^-inch comet-seeker, and a sidereal clock by 

 Howard. A spectroscope, to cost $1,000, has been ordered from Alvan 

 Clark & Sous. A description of the observatory, with its iustrumeuts 

 and work from 1883 to 1880, has been published as volume i of the ob- 

 servatory publications. This volume contains a list of four hundred and 

 nine nebulie discovered since July 9, 1883 (it is stated that five hundred 

 and fort}' have been discovered in all), a list of the Warner astronom 

 ical prizes, and the full text of the Warner prize essays on comets and 

 on the red " sky-glows." 



VanderMlt University Observatory, Nashville, Tenn. — This observa- 

 tory is supplied with the following instruments : 



Six-inch equatorial refractor, by T. Cooke & Sons, 8-foot focus, with 

 hour circle divided to single minutes, and subdivided to 2^ by opposite 

 verniers ; and declination circle divided to 10' and read by two verniers 

 to 10". There is also a third vernier reading to 15", used for setting 

 in declination, and read by the observer at the eye-piece with a small 

 telescope. The instrument is supplied with eight eye-pieces, ranging 

 from 00 to 600, and filar micrometer (bright field, dark wires only). A 

 revolving disk with colored glasses gives a change of color of field, — a 

 red one being found most useful, as it seems to permit observations of 

 fainter objects with sufficient distinctness of the wires. A ring microm- 

 eter (not belonging to the observatory) is also used with the ecpiatorial. 

 A good driving clock gives a steady motion to the telescoi)e. Two 

 spectroscopes belong to this instrumeut — one, a direct-vision s[)ectro- 

 scope by Merz & Mahler, the other by Grubb. 



The equatorial room is surmounted by a hemis])herical dome, revolv- 

 ing readily by hand on twelve pairs of wlieels. The shutter is of light 

 corrugated iron, in two sections; the upper section, two-thirds of the 

 entire length, passes through the zenith to the back of the dome ; the 

 other part is drawn to one side, ruuuiug ou two light wheels, upon 



