ex VIII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Nov. 28.—" The Orbits of Slellar Systems, " by AV. E. Harper, M. A. 

 Dec. 5.—" Tlie Geometry of Orbits, " by W. F. King, LL.D. 

 Dec. 19. — Annual General Meeting. 

 Jan. 16.—" The Calendar, " by W. F. l^ng, LL.D. 

 Jan. 30.— " Methods of Tredicting Occultations," by E. M. Mother- 

 well, B.A. 

 Feb. 13.—" Astronomical Cycles, " by W. F. King, LL.D. 

 Feb. 27.— " Earthquakes and the Interior of the Earih," by OWi 

 Klotz, i,ij. D. 

 ' Mar. 12.—" Time," by W. F. King, LL.D. 

 Mar. 26.—" The Determination of Azinmtli, " by F. A. McDiarmid, 



B.A. 

 Apr. 16. — " Latitude and Longitude, '' by Otto Klotz, LL.D 

 Apr. 30. — " Errors of Transit Observations, '' by E. M. Stewart, M.A. 

 May 14. — " Mars, " by Joseph Pope, C.M.G. 



May 28.—" The Spectrograph for Eadial Velocity AVork, " by J. S. 

 Plaskett, B.A. 

 At the evening meetings a valuable course on the elements of 

 astronomy, each paper dealing Avith a different phase of the science was 

 given by the President, Dr. W. F. King, Director of the Observatory. 

 These lectures were each complete in themselves, and yet followed one 

 another in logical order, giving in a readily understandable form much 

 useful information about the branch of the subject they treated. They 

 were all well attended and much interest was evinced in them. A new 

 departure at the evening meetings has been the inauguration by the 

 President of the " Question Box.'' Any question on astronomical sub- 

 jects sent to the Secretary will be answered at the next evening meeting. 

 Much interest has been aroused by this feature of the meetings, as most 

 of the questions have been of a general character. The privilege ex- 

 tended to the members, at tlie conclusion of the meeting, of observing 

 any interesting celestial objects with the telescope has been continued 

 and is a very popular part of tlie proceedings. 



The papers presented at tlie afternoon meetings have alb been of a 

 high class, several of them containing the results of original research 

 forming distinct contributions to science. A brief abstract of each may 

 be given. 



1. " The Star Image in Spectrographic AVork, " by J. S. Plaskett, 

 gave an account of the difficulties met with and the success finally at- 

 tending the efforts to obtain a perfect auxiliary photograpluc correcting 

 lens for the visual refractor. This is a continuation and conclusion of 

 the paper under the same title given last season when the aberrations of 



