ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGRESS. 



173 



Antietam, battle Sept. 17 



luka (Miss.), battle Sept. 19 



Corinth (Miss.', battle Oct. 



Perryville (Ky.), battle Oct. 



Holly Springs (Miss.) Nov. 13 



CaneHill (Ark.), battle. .. Nov. 28 



Crawford's Prairie (Ark.), battle Dec. 7 



Fredericksburg (Va.), battle Dec. 



Murfreesboro (Tenn.), battle Dec. 81 



What has been accomplished by the military 

 operations of the year : The State of Missouri 

 has been relieved from invasion by the Confed- 

 erate force. Half of Arkansas has been per- 

 manently occupied. The Confederate force has 

 been driven from the Mississippi river except at 

 Vicksburg and Port Hudson. Western and 

 Middle Tennessee have been occupied, and the 

 former and part of the latter held. Western 

 Virginia has been retained by the Federal Gov- 

 ernment. Maryland exhibited her preference 

 for the Union. Norfolk and Yorktown have 

 been taken and held. The cities and towns on 

 the coast of North Carolina, with few excep- 

 tions, are occupied by a Federal force. Fort 

 Pulaski, commanding the entrance to Savannah, 

 was captured, and the important points on the 

 coast of Florida occupied. ' Pensacola and New 

 Orleans were also taken, and nearly all of Louis- 

 iana brought under Federal control. The forces 

 of the North have slowly but firmly advanced 

 upon every side of the Confederacy, and perma- 

 nently hold every important position which 

 they have gained. The battle of Antietam se- 

 cured the border States, and decided the phys- 

 ical supremacy of the Union in favor of the 

 North. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND 

 PROGRESS. The astronomical questions which 

 during the year 1862 have taken precedence of 

 all others, are those relating to the physical 

 constitution of the sun, and the possible deter- 

 mination of some of the chemical elements 

 composing that body. Next to these in order 

 of interest, may yet perhaps be ranked the 

 question of variableness and disappearance of 

 nebula. Nearly the average fertility in new 

 asteroids (or planetoids) has rewarded the 

 faithful devotees of the telescope ; and though 

 the comets of the year have not been brilliant, 

 they have exhibited some features of inter- 

 est. For many points directly or indirectly 

 connected with the subject of this article, the 

 reader is referred to the titles, EAETH, and 

 AURORAS." 



Atteroid*. Jan. 27, 1862, asteroid (53), Ca- 

 lypso, discovered in 1859, by Dr. Luther, at 

 Bilk, near Dusseldorf, and at the periods of its 

 opposition to the sun in the two succeeding 

 years not detected, was by the same observer, 

 after careful preparation of an ephemeris and 

 a search of three weeks, rediscovered. Aug. 

 13, 1861, Dr. Luther found a new asteroid, ap- 

 pearing as a star of the llth magnitude, and 

 which he named Niobe, its number being sup- 

 posed to be (71). Of the observations made by 

 Dr. Peters, of Hamilton College Observatory, 

 and all of them, as he supposed, on the recently 



discovered Maja (66), Mr. T. H. Safford, of 

 Cambridge Observatory, found on a careful 

 computation that 8 consecutive ones did not 

 agree with the others ; and he was led to infer 

 that they indicated another planet contiguous 

 at the time. For this the name Feronia was 

 aftenvard selected by Mr. Safford and Dr. 

 Peters; it now stands as (71), Niobe, subse- 

 quently discovered, ranking as (72). April 7, 

 1862, an asteroid appearing of the 13th magni- 

 tude, was discovered near /3 Virginis, by Mr. 

 H. P. Tuttle, at Cambridge Observatory; to 

 this (73) the name Clytia was afterward given. 

 This is the third discovery of the kind within 

 12 months, at the same observatory. Asteroid 

 (74) was discovered by M. Tempel, Aug. 29, 

 and named Galatea ; and it is now probable that 

 this was the asteroid observed, Sept. 25, by Mr. 

 II. M. Parkhurst, of N. Y. An asteroid, sup- 

 posed until recently to number (75), was dis- 

 covered by Dr. Peters, Sept. 22 ; this, however, 

 is now believed to be the true Daphne. (See 

 below.) 



M. D'Arrest, of the observatory of Copenha- 

 gen, Oct. 21, detected asteroid (76) ; and he 

 commemorates this first discovery of the sort 

 in a latitude so far north, by proposing for the 

 planet a name from the Scandinavian mytholo- 

 gy, that of Freya, the hyperborean Yenus. 

 Including Feronia, this gives four asteroids for 

 the year. 



Some changes of name, as well as of order, 

 among the asteroids have been made. To (69), 

 announced in the first volume of the Cyclopas- 

 dia, the name of Hesperia is assigned ; that of 

 Panopaea being given to (70). When M. Cha- 

 cornac had fonnd asteroid (59), he deferred the 

 naming of it by courtesy to M. Le Verrier, 

 principal of the observatory. The latter de- 

 sired to have introduced what he considered a 

 more useful system of naming than the present, 

 and delayed accordingly ; meanwhile, Von Lit- 

 trow, who had chiefly calculated the orbit of 

 the planet, suggested the name Elpis. Le 

 Verrier having finally waived for the time his 

 scruples, Chacornac requested Mr. Hind to fur- 

 nish a name, and he selected that of Olympia. 

 The name at first given to (61), Titania, having 

 been previously appropriated to a satellite of 

 Uranus, has been changed to Echo. One of the 

 most interesting episodes of asteroid-finding 

 is presented in the history of the supposed 

 Daphne. May 22, 1856, M. Goldschmidt, of 

 Paris, found a new asteroid (41), which during 

 a few days longer was observed by himself and 

 others. It soon grew faint and disappeared. 

 Its return to opposition in Sept. 1857, was com- 

 puted ; and at the latter date a concerted 

 search was made for it by astronomers of dif- 

 ferent countries. Goldschmidt announced what 

 he supposed to be the rediscovered planet ; but 

 afterward finding a discrepancy in the elements 

 of the bodies for the two years, he inferred that 

 the planet of 1857 was not Daphne, and named 

 it Pseudo-Daphne (56). At two succeeding op- 

 positions, this planet was not seen ; but it was 



