46 ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA. 



AUSTRIA. 



earth, are cooled on their surfaces, and with 

 only volcanoes to tell of their molten history ; 

 and others, like our moon, are still further on 

 in their history, where even volcanic energy 

 has become cold and dead. Some are invari- 

 ably bright, and others, like our sun, exhibit 

 comparatively small dark spots on their sides. 

 Some at each rotation have their light 

 slightly dimmed with spots ; others again are 

 dimmed more and more, and still others have 

 at each rotation their light entirely hid. At 

 last we behold others whose light goes out en- 

 tirely, perhaps to be rekindled by a temporary 

 glow, and to be called by astronomers a tem- 

 porary star, and then its light is gone, dark, for- 

 ever dark, not to be a dreary solitude, but in a 

 resurrection morn to be reillumined, like our 

 earth, with the happy light of intellectual life 

 and social enjoyment." 



Asteroids. The 85th asteroid lias bc\:n 

 named lo, which is also the designation of one 

 of the satellites of Jupiter. On the 4th of Jan- 

 uary, 1866, Dr. F. Tietjen at Berlin, discovered 

 a new asteroid (86) of the 12th magnitude, near 

 to asteroid 85, whose place he was then en- 

 gaged in determining. It has received the 

 name of Semele. Mr. Pogson, at Madras, dis- 

 covered an asteroid (87) on the 16th of May, 

 whose magnitude he estimated at 11.5. Dr. 

 0. H. F. Peters, at the Hamilton College Ob- 

 servatory, discovered on the 15th of June, No. 

 88, a little brighter than stars of the 12th mag- 

 nitude. The last two asteroids are named re- 

 spectively Sylvia and Thisbe. The 89th asteroid 

 was discovered by M. Stephan, the director of 

 the Marseilles Observatory, in the constellation 

 of Capricorn. It is estimated at the 9th mag- 

 nitude. On the llth of October, Dr. Luther, 

 of Bilk, near Dusseldorf, discovered the 90th 

 asteroid, which is of the llth magnitude. The 

 discovery of the 91st asteroid at the Marseilles 

 Observatory, reported by M. Le Verrier to the 

 French Academy, completes the list announced 

 for the year. 



The Astro- Photometer. Zollner gives the 

 following results of his recent observations with 

 the astro-photometer. 



The light of Ihe sun, in comparison to that 

 of the star Capella, is as 55,760,000,000 to 1, 

 with a probable error of about 5 per cent. 



The following is Zollner's estimate of the 

 comparative light of the sun with several of the 

 planets : 



Prob. error. 



gun-= 6,994,000,000 times Mars 5.8 per ct. 



5,472,000,000 times Jupiter 5.7 " 



130,980,000,000 times Saturn (with- 

 out ring) 5.0 " 



8,486,000,000,000 times Uranus 6.0 " 



79,620,000,000,000 times Neptune. .5.5 " 

 619,000 times Full Moot 2.7 " 



By comparing surfaces, the sun = 618,000 

 times the full moon, with a probable error of 

 1.6 per cent. 



From the above estimates, it may be inferred 

 that the sun, at a distance of 3.72 years way of 

 light, would appear like Capella with a paral- 



lax ofO" 874. Peters has actually found 0" 046, 

 If the light suffers no absorption in the celestia. 

 spaces, Capella must give out much more light 

 than the sun ; and a Centauri seems to bo equal 

 to the sun. 



Works and Memoirs. Among the works 

 and memoirs upon astronomical subjects pub- 

 lished in this country during the present year, 

 may be mentioned the following : The Origin 

 of the Stars, by Jacob Ennis, 12mo, D. Ap- 

 pleton & Co., ; Memoirs of the National 

 Academy of Sciences, 4to, Government print- 

 ing-office, Washington ; Annals of the Diidley 

 Observatory, vol. i. ; a new edition (3d) of 

 Olmsted^s Astronomy, revised by E. S. Snell, 

 LL. D. r Professor of Natural Philosophy in Am- 

 herst College. At the meeting. of the Amer- 

 ican Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence, at Buffalo, in August (after a suspension 

 of meetings for five years, in consequence of 

 the war), the following papers bearing upon 

 astronomical topics were read: Spots on the 

 Sun, by Prof. E. Loomis ; on the Period 

 of Algol, by the same; on Fundamental Star 

 Catalogues, by Prof. T. II. Safford, of Chicago. 

 At the August meeting of the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences, John N. Stockwell read a 

 paper on the Secular Acceleration of the Moon's 

 Mean Motion ; Prof. B. Pierce, on the Origin of 

 Solar Heat; Prof. T. Strong, on a New Theory 

 of Planetary Motion ; and Lewis M. Rutherfurd, 

 on Astronomical Photography. 



AUSTRIA.* Emperor, Francis Joseph I., 

 born August 18, 1830 ; succeeded his uncle, 

 Ferdinand I. (as King of Hungary and Bohemia 

 called Ferdinand V.), on December 2, 1848. 

 Heir apparent, Archduke Rudolph, born August 

 21, 1858. 



In consequence of the German-Italian war, 

 Austria lost the crown-land of Venetia, which 

 was annexed to Italy. The cession of this prov- 

 ince reduced the area of Austria to 239,048 

 English square miles, and the population to 

 32,573,002. Of this total population 21,521,713 

 are Roman Catholics; 3,536,608, Greek Catho- 

 lics; 2,921,541 (non-united) Greeks; 1,218,750, 

 Lutherans; 1,963,730, Reformed; 50,887, Uni- 

 tarian's ; 3,944, members of other sects ; 1,043,- 

 448, Israelites. As regards nationalities, the 

 empire has now 7,877,675 Germans, 11,044,872 

 Northern Slavi, 3,955,882 Southern Slavi, 581,- 

 126 Western Roumanians (Italians, 'etc.), 2,642,- 

 953 Eastern Roumanians, 4,947,134 Magyars, 

 1,210,949 persons of other races. 



The receipts in the budget for 1866 were esti- 

 mated at 495,004,238 florins, and the expendi- 

 tures at 535,143,384 florins. The public debt 

 amounted, on January 30, 1866, to 2,831,211,195 

 florins. The portion reimbursable and bearing 

 interest is represented by 720,787,485 florins ; 

 not bearing interest, 313,334,643 florins; and 

 the portion not repayable, and bearing interest, 

 1,797,060,043 florins ; and bearing no interest, 



* For the latest commercial statistics received from Aus- 

 tria, and for an account of the Austrian Keichsralh, set 

 ANNUAL CTCI.OP-EDIA for 1865. 





