'222 ASTRONOMY. 



oJ:.4:14^, by 174 rotations between I^Tovember 25, 1880, and February 

 5, 1881. Professor Schmidt, from 1,021 rotations between July 23, 

 1879, and September 17, 1880, obtained the value d^. 55"». 34:.422^ for 

 the middle of the spot. In 1862, by observations on a spot which he says 

 was much darker, and with a more favorable object for the purpose 

 than the spots observed by Airy and Madler in 1834:-'3o, and which was 

 not much larger than the shadow of the third satellite, he had found 

 for the time of rotation 9^^. 55™. 25.684«. 



From seven years' observation of the surface of Jupiter, Herr Bre- 

 dichin concludes that the inequalities in the angular velocity of the 

 diflerent figures seen on the planet may possibly be explained by as- 

 suming (1) that in the neighborhood of the equator there is a solid, ele- 

 vated zone, which, however, does not rise beyond the limits of the 

 atmosphere, and (2) that the crust of the southern hemisphere trans- 

 mits more internal heat into the atmosjjhere than that of the northern, 

 and this affects the direction of currents of gases and vapors passing 

 from one hemisphere to the other. The phenomena observed in that 

 part of the crust which appears through the vaporous layer as a red 

 spot prove, he says, the considerably deeper position of this spot as 

 compared with the equatorial zone, and the preponderating heat devel- 

 opment on the southern part of Jupiter. Herr Bredichin gives the dis- 

 tances of the southern and northern borders of the elevated equatorial 

 zone from the equator, for the years 1874 to 1880, and he finds that the 

 equatorial zone must be steeper to the south, while it has a more gentle 

 fall to the north, so that here it is varying, and covered more or less 

 with clouds and vapors. The highest strip of this zone seems to be 2'' 

 from the equator, on the north. 



The French Academy of Sciences, on the 14th of March, again pro- 

 posed the Damoiscau prize of 10,000 francs for a memoir deemed most 

 competent " to review the theory of the satellites of Jupiter, to discuss 

 the observations, and to deduce the constants which it contains, and par- 

 ticularly that which furnishes a direct determination of the velocity of 

 light; and, lastly, to construct special tables for each satellite." Strange 

 to say, in this age of keen astronomical research, this prize, when pro- 

 posed in 1869, 1872, 1876, 1877, and 1879, met with no response. 



Saturn. — Dr. W. Meyer, of Geneva, has employed the new Geneva 

 (10-inch) equatorial in measures on the system of Saturn^ which are to 

 be continued. His first year's results show that the ball of Saturn is 

 eccentrically situated as regards the boundary of the outer ring. He 

 makes the diameter of the whole ring system 40".47; width of ring A 

 (the outer ring), 3" ; width of rings A and B together, on the west 

 side, 7".18 — on the east, 6".97 ; width of ring C (dusky ring), west side, 

 2".24 — east side, 2".91; equatorial diameter, 17".42; polar diameter, 

 16".20; compression, 1-^-14.5. These results are reduced to the dis- 

 tance 9.5389. While it seems to require farther proof that the ring 

 system is eccentrically situated with respect to the ball, there is a cer- 



