ASTRONOMICAL PROGRESS IX 1896. 



AUSTRALASIA. 



53 



bell: Perihelion passage. Dec. 18^88570, Greenwich 

 mean time longitude of perihelion = 233* 1 57 : 



loniritudeof nod.- = :!2<> ; 26 I'.i : inclination = 141 

 :;:i 22 : perihelion distance = 0*192253. Earth's 

 = 1. 



Comet it 1*95 (Brooks) a fairly bright, but rapidly 



moving comet, was discovered by Brooks, of Smith 



i-vatory. (icin-va. X. V.. Nov. 21. in Hydra. Its 



motion was nearly north, soon becoming circumpo- 



lar. and so remained till it became invisible. The 



following elements, unlike those of any other comet. 



computed by Prof. Leuschner : Perihelion 



pas-, nwich mean time 



longitude of perihelion = 22 C : longitude of node = 



: inclination = 7*5 4') : perihelion distance = 



594. 



Comet a 1896 (Perrine-Lamp) was discovered at 

 the Lick Observatory. Feb. 15. 181*6. by Perrine. 

 and a few hours later by Dr. Lamp, of Kiel. ! 

 many. The story of its discovery is interesting, 

 Init too long to be embodied here. They (the IVr- 

 rine and Perrine-Lamp comet- uch other, 



moving in opposite directions, within three or four 

 degrees, on Feb. 20. The history of astronomy fur- 

 nishes but one previous instance of two comets hav- 

 ing passed each other so closely that both were 

 almost included in the same field of the telescope. 

 This near approach, however, was only apparent : 

 for one was four times as far from the Earth as \\a- 

 the other. The following elements are by Dr. 

 Chandler, and are almost identical with those com- 

 puted by Dr. Lamp: Time of perihelion pa- 

 Jan. 3V76287. Greenwich mean time longi- 

 tude of perihelion = 206' is 10-6 : longitude of 

 node = 208 55 51'7 : inclination = 135 47 38T'; 

 perihelion distance = 0-5872. 



met 1> lMi'5 i Swift) was discovered on April 

 13. though it was seen a few days before and con- 

 sidered a nebula. It came up from the southern 

 hemisphere, passing between the Earth and the Sun, 

 crossing the ecliptic almost exactly at its perihelion 

 point. It was easily visible with an opera glass, 

 was nearly round, with a bright though very small 

 nucleus and a tail a few minutes in length. The 

 following elements, which somewhat resemble those 

 of Comet II 1786. are by Atkin. of Lick Observa- 

 tory : Perihelion passage April 17-64655 Greenwich 

 mean time longitude of node = 17* 15 58-1 : 

 longitude of perihelion = \^i 5-7 : inclination = 

 55 34 16 : perihelion distance = 0-56639. 



Periodic Comet V 1889 (Brooks) was detected at 

 the Observatory of Nice. June 20, 1896 in right 

 ascension 22 h 25 m 38", declination south 18 38' 50 

 very nearly at the computed place given several 

 months previously by Charles Lane Poor, who cal- 

 culated the elements from observations made at its 

 first recorded appearance in 1889. 



Comet d 1896 was discovered by M. Giacobini at 

 Nice. Sept. 5. The following elements were com- 

 puted by Scares and Crawford, of the University of 

 California: Longitude of node = 195 34 : longi- 

 tude of perihelion = 350 22': inclination 9 "'> : 

 perihelion distance = 1-1127. 



Comet e 1896 (Sperra) was first seen by Sperra, 

 of Randolph, Ohio. Aug. 31. In the absence of a 

 telegraph office the announcement had to be made 

 by mail, thus causing a delay of several days. Fol- 

 lowing are the elements of its orbit as calculated 

 by Scares and Crawford : Time of perihelion pas- 

 sage, July 10-64. Greenwich mean time longitude 

 of node = 151 2': longitude of perihelion = 191 : 

 41: inclination = 88 25': perihelion distance = 

 1-1399. 



On Sept. 20. 1896. when one third of the Sun had 

 set below a mountain. Dr. Swift, at Echo Mountain, 

 California, saw a bright naked-eye comet about one 

 degree above the Sun's upper limb, which on exami- 



nation with an opera glass revealed the presence of 

 another about 30 north, the latter not visible to the 

 unu-sisu-d eye. The usual discovery notification was 

 telegraphed to the Lick and Harvard College ob- 

 servatories, and by Prof. Pickering, of the latter, 

 was cabled to Europe. Neither of these bodies was 

 seen elsewhere. 



Astronomical Prizes. The gold medal of the 

 Royal Astronomical Society of England has been 

 awarded to Dr. S. C. Chandler, of Boston, for his 

 work on variable stars and for his investigation of 

 the fluctuations of latitude in certain places, which 

 he ascribes to motions of the earth's axis, causing 

 both poles, in a period of about fourteen months, to 

 describe small circles of about 30' radius. The evi- 

 dence of this hypothesis is so << n vim-ing, as pre- 

 sented by him. that it meets with general accept- 

 ance by astronomers. 



The Val/. astronomical prize, bestowed by the 

 Academy of Sciences of Paris, has been received 

 by William F. Denning, of Bristol. England, for 

 his observations of shooting stars, the discovery of 

 comets, and other astronomical work. 



E. T. Whitaker is the recipient of the Tyson 

 medal awarded by Cambridge University. England. 



The bronze comet medal of the Astronomical 

 Society of the Pacific has been twice bestowed on 

 Dr. Lewis Swift. Director of Lowe Observatory, 

 Echo Mountain, California, for Comet IV 1895. Nov. 

 17. and for Comet II 1896. on April 13. Also to Prof. 

 W. R. Brooks. Director of Smith Observatory. Ge- 

 neva, N. Y., for the discovery of Comet III 1895, 

 on Nov. 21. Also to Prof. C. D. Perrine for Comet 

 IV 1^.15. on Nov. 17. 



AUSTRALASIA, one of the grand divisions of 

 the globe, consisting of the continent of Australia 

 and the island colonies of Great Britain in the Pa- 

 cific, with intervening islands. With the exception 

 of the Dutch and German parts of New Guinea, the 

 German protectorates of Bismarck Archipelago and 

 the northern Solomon Islands, the French colony of 

 New C'aledonia. and smaller groups still under na- 

 tive rule, all the islands of Australasia are British 

 colonies or dependencies. The five colonies of 

 Australia and the colonies of Tasmania and New 

 Zealand are self-governing, each having its repre- 

 sentative legislature and its responsible ministry, 

 disposing of its own revenues, and making all its 

 laws, under charters granted by the British Parlia- 

 ment, subject to a certain reserved veto power of 

 the Imperial Government and to the appellate 

 jurisdiction of the Judicial Committee of the Brit- 

 ish House of Lords in matters of imperial concern. 

 The Crown is represented by a governor in each 

 colony, who, as the executive head of the colonial 

 government, acts on the advice of ministers chosen 

 from the party or combination that forms the ma- 

 jority of the Legislative Assembly. Fiji is a Crown 

 colony in which the natives are governed partly by 

 their own chiefs according to traditional custom. 



Area and Population. The area of the Brit- 

 ish Australasian colonies, computed from the latest 

 surveys, and their estimated population on Dec. 31, 

 18H4. were as follow : 



The total population of the 7 Australasian colo- 

 nies at the end of 1895 was estimated at 4.238,000, 



