194 ASTRONOMY. 



and secular variations for each epoch are independently computed. 

 Formuhie for finding the place of a star for any epoch between 1750 and 

 1900 from the data in the catalogue by Taylor's theorem add to the gen- 

 eral usefulness of Professor INewcomb's work, which will no doubt be 

 extensively employed by astronomers who have to reduce lunar or i)lau- 

 etary observations made during the last and the present century. 



Dr. Gould has printed his second volume (Cordoba observations of 

 1872), except the introduction. It contains the places of 400 stars for 

 the catalogue, and also 128 zones of the zone observations, comprising 

 over 13,000 stars. All the observations made at Cordoba are now fully 

 reduced and they make a grand showing : 

 121, 000 observations for the catalogue of 35,000 stars. 

 14, 000 observations of fundamental stars. 

 105, 000 observations for the zones. 



I 



240, 000 observations in all. 



Of these about half (including all the zones) were made by Dr. Gould 

 personally. The total number of stars will be somewhere in the neigh- 

 borhood of 80,000 in the zones, and 30,000 to 35,000 stars in the cata- 

 logue. 



The work is all ready for the printer w]) to the end of 1875, but much 

 remains to be done to put it in final shape from 1875 to 1880. The print- 

 ing is an extremely flow process in Buenos Ayres, and the meteorolog- 

 ical volumes (2 of which have appeared) are sources of delay. 



Among recent catalogues of stars may be cited that published by 

 Professor Eespighi in vol. VIII of the Atti dclla E. Accademia dei Lincei. 

 It contains the mean declinations for 1875 of 1,463 stars between the 

 parallels of 20° and Q4P north, deduced from observations with the me- 

 ridian circle of the Royal Observatory of*Campidoglio in the years 1875, 

 1876, and 1877. 



The separate publication of the Berlin list of 539 stars will cease 

 with 1881, and a selection from this list will apijear in the Berliner 

 Jahrbuch. 



A catalogue of 195 stars is printed in I^o. 1 of the Publications of the 

 Washburn Observatory. The observations were made at Ann Arbor 

 by Mr. Schaeberle, the reductions at Madison by Mr. Comstock, under 

 the direction of Professor Watson. 



Each star was observed three times on the average, and tiie probable 

 errors in R. A. and Dec. of the concluded positions are : 



±0^ 040 sec 8 and 



rtO". 55 respectively. 



The zones of the Astronomische Gesellschaft from 80° to —2^ are now 

 nearly finished. Kasan (80-75), Dorpat (75-70), Christiania (70-65), 

 Gotha (65-55), Harvard College (55-50), Bonn (50-40), have all finished 

 the observations, and the reductions are nearly done. Lund (40-35) 

 will finish observing in 1881. Leyden (35-30) will soon publish the 



