1868. | Astronomy. 377 
Reflectors used with a solar eye-piece containing a simple surface- 
reflecting prism, seem to give the most satisfactory views. 
The ninety-eighth asteriod was discovered by Mr. Peters, at 
Clinton, on April 18th last; it is of the twelfth magnitude. 
The lunar crater Linné continues to be a subject of dispute in 
the astronomical world: the opinion is gaining ground that there 
has been no change in the crater, but that, owing to the peculiar 
character of the moon’s surface in this neighbourhood, very slight 
variations in the illumination serve to produce marked variations in 
the appearance of the crater. At a late meeting of the Astrono- 
mical Society, Captain Noble stated that a “few hours sufficed to 
change a distinct ring into a smudge.” 
Saturn is now an interesting object of observation, though his 
southern declination is unfavourable to distinctness. His rings are 
well open, the outer edge very nearly coincident (in appearance) 
-with the outline of the ball. It is to be hoped that something may 
be learned respecting the structure of the rmgs during the present 
and the next two oppositions, as some fourteen or fifteen years will 
elapse before the rings are again opened to their full extent. 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE Royau AstTronomiIcaAL Soctety. 
M. Hoek, director of the Observatory of Utrecht, remarks on the 
small distance which separates the intersection of the orbits of 
comets III. and V., 1857, from the point which he has assigned as 
the radiant point of cometary orbits. Comet III., 1867, unex- 
pectedly confirms his views, since, as we have mentioned in a former 
Chronicle, the circle which is the intersection of its orbit-plane with 
the celestial sphere passes through almost the same point of the sky. 
Thus, he adds, “the last ten years have furnished us with two 
Cometary systems, each composed of three members; first, that of 
the years 1860 and 1863, then that of the years 1857 and 1867. 
It appears that it would be to mistake the principles of the theory of 
probabilities, if we attributed all these coincidences to mere chance.” 
He supplies also an elaborate memoir on the phenomena which 
a very extended swarm of meteors, coming from space, would present 
after its entry into the solar system. He takes the case of a swarm 
of corpuscles coming from the stellar spaces, and sufficiently ex- 
tended to embrace the whole earth. It would be impossible in the 
space available to us to give even a sketch of the processes applied by 
M. Hoek, which occupy no less than eighteen pages of calculation. 
Some of the results at which he arrives agree closely with those 
lately published by M. Schiaparelli, in a memoir entitled “ Note e 
Riflessioni intorno alla Teoria Astronomica delle stelle cadenti.” 
M. Hoek finds that under certain circumstances, the ae attrac- 
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