48 



ASTRONOMICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



nucleus of a fund the interest of which is to 

 pay for the care and use of the observatory and 

 instruments. The University of California is 

 making efforts to increase this maintenance 

 fund to $1,000,000. The observatory has re- 

 cently issued the first volume of its publica- 

 tion. The contents of the volume are Mr. 

 Lick's deeds of trust ; Prof. Newcomb's report 

 on glass for objectives ; report of Mr. Burn- 

 ham's work at Mount Hamilton in testing the 

 climate for double-star work in 1879 and again 

 in 1881 ; descriptions of the buildings and in- 

 struments; an account of the engineering and 

 building at Mount Hamilton in 1880-'85; ob- 

 servations of the transits of Mercury in 1881, 

 and of Venus in 1882; geological reports; me- 

 teorological observations, 1880-'85 ; reduction- 

 tables for Lick Observatory. 



instruments. (See ''Annual Cyclopaedia " for 

 1885, page 54.) 



New American Observatories. The Denver Uni- 

 versity Observatory, of Colorado, is to be pro- 

 vided with new observatory buildings and a 

 new refracting telescope with 20-inch object- 

 glass. The telescope is to be mounted 5,000 

 feet above sea-level, or 800 feet higher than 

 the great Lick telescope. Mr. H. B. Chamber- 

 lain, of Denver, is the donor. 



The Dearborn Observatory, of Chicago, is be- 

 ing removed to Evanston (within a few miles 

 of Chicago). It will be placed on a site 250 

 feet from Lake Michigan. It is expected that 

 the 18^-inch equatorial will be remounted in its 

 new home in January, 1889. 



Foreign Observatories. The report of the Pul- 

 kowa Observatory for 1887 says that the 30- 



LICK OBSERVATORY. 



Mr. Keeler has recently shown that the see- 

 ing in winter is not especially better at the ob- 

 servatory than at lower elevations. At other 

 times "the secret of the steady seeing at Mount 

 Hamilton lies in the coast fogs. These roll in 

 from the sea every afternoon in the summer, 

 rising from 1,500 to 2,000 feet. They cover 

 the hot valley, and keep the radiation from it 

 shut in. There are no fogs in day-time, and 

 few in winter." 



The complete instrumental equipment of the 

 observatory is as follows : equatorials of 36, 12, 

 and 6| inches aperture, a 4-inch comet-seeker, 

 photoheliograph, 6-inch meridian circle, de- 

 clinograph, 4-ine.h transit and zenith telescope 

 combined, 2-inch universal instrument, three 

 chronographs, five independent clocks, besides 

 controlled clocks and chronometers, minor as- 

 tronomical and a good set of meteorological 



inch refractor was employed by Dr. Hermann 

 Struve in measuring those of Burnham's double 

 stars which are only seldom measurable with 

 the old 15-inch, together with other stars of 

 which measures are scarce, making a working 

 catalogue of 750 stars. Observations were also 

 made of the fainter satellites of Saturn, and of 

 that of Neptune. Ludwig Struve has calcu- 

 lated the constant of precession and the mo- 

 tion of the solar system in space. He obtained 

 values not greatly different from those previ- 

 ously calculated. 



The Royal Observatory, Greenwich, is to 

 have a new 28-inch refractor. The glass disks 

 have been cast by Messrs. Chance, and the 

 lenses will be made by Sir Howard Grubb. 



At the Oxford Observatory Prof. Pritchard 

 examined for the Photographic Committee of 

 the Royal Society two silver-on-glass mirrors 



