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SOME ASPECTS OF AMERICAN ASTRONOMY. 



BY SIMON NEWCOMB. 



[Simon Newcomb, astronomer; born Wallace, N. S., March 12, 1835; educated by 

 his father and came to the United States in 1853; teacher in Maryland, 1854-56; 

 computer on Nautical Almanac, 1857 ; graduated from Lawrence scientific school of 

 Harvard, 1858; professor mathematics United States navy, 1861; secretary United 

 States transit of Venus commission, 1871-74; observed transit of Venus at Cape 

 Good Hope, 1882; directt)r Nautical Almanac office, 1877-97; retired in 1897 at the 

 age of 62; president A. A. A. S., 1876-77; member of nearly all the national academies 

 of science of the world; has received the Copley, Huygens, Royal Society and Bruce 

 medals; author. Popular Astronomy; Calculus; Principles of Political Economy,; 

 Elements of Astronomy; Astronomj' for Everybody, etc.] 



A little more than two centuries ago Huygens prefaced 

 an account of his discoveries on the planet Saturn with the 

 remark that many, even among the learned, might think he 

 had been devoting to things too distant to interest mankind 

 an amount of study which would better have been devoted 

 to subjects of more immediate concern. It must be admitted 

 that this fear has not deterred succeeding astronomers from 

 pursuing their studies. The enthusiastic students of astron- 

 omy in America are only a detachment from an army of 

 investigators who, in many parts of the world, are seeking 

 to explore the mysteries of creation. Why so great an ex- 

 penditure of energy? Certainly not to gain wealth, for astron- 

 omy is perhaps the one field of scientific work which, in our 

 expressive modern phrase, ''has no money in it." It is true 

 that the great practical use of astronomical science to the 

 country and the world in affording us the means of deter- 

 mining positions on land and at sea is frequently pointed out. 

 It is said that an Astronomer Royal of England once calcu- 

 lated that every meridian observation of the moon made at 

 Greenwich was worth a pound sterling on account of the help 

 it would afford to the navigation of the ocean. An accurate 

 map of the United States can not be constructed without 

 astronomical observations at numerous points scattered over 

 the whole country, aided by data which great observatories 

 have been accumulating for more than a century, and must 

 continue to accumulate in the future. 



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