RONOMICAL I'llKNo.MENA. 



AUSTRALAMA. 



71 



from twenty ralnn tea to hull' an hour is 



ling to report) to produce pho- 



ctterts, \\hich in England occupy 



liivrt measurements 



intcii-ity of .sunlight iimliT tlio equator, 



'.ira by T. E. Thorpe, tend to prove 



.llacy of these statements; for his obser- 



is.-lniw that tin- activity of the chemical 



ii tin- tropic-, is very much greater in one 



reater than in the. latitudes of 



UK!. The following table gives a com- 



n nf several days: 



|i Ml.V MEAN CHEMICAL INTENSITY. 



Changes of Star Colors. Mr. Kincaid has 

 (Miiimmiicated to the Royal Society a de- 

 scription of an instrument, invented by him, 

 called a metrochrome, for detecting changes 

 of >tar colors. Ho uses a rotating drum 

 with six equidistant openings, three of which 

 are so constructed as to admit flat-sided 

 stoppered bottles containing different colored 

 chemical solutions; the other three openings 

 transmit the normal light of the lantern. By 

 wholly or partially covering one or more of the 

 former openings, and by communicating a 

 rapid rotation to the drum, it will be possible 

 in reproduce the light of a particular star. 

 Tliis light thrown into the telescope produces 

 the image of an artificial star. Changes have 

 certainly been noted as yet only in Sirius and 

 ;" lK:vu!i-. They are very difficult to detect. 

 Some observers differ greatly in their estimate 

 of color. Mr. Proctor has suggested that the 

 illumination of a minute white disk in the 

 focus of a positive eye-piece, through differently 

 colored glasses placed on a rotating disk, is a 

 method that might be employed with advan- 

 A painted scale, like that given by 

 Admiral Smythe, is objectionable on account of 

 the opacity of its color, and is, further, not 

 sufficiently reproducible. Quarterly Journal 

 of Science, No. XV. 



Comet* of the Year. Mr. Stephan on the 22d 

 of January discovered a faint telescopic comet, 

 in ( U. A. ) 2ii 34m, and (N. P. D.) 74 26', Comet 

 II., 18G7, a faint one, was discovered by Mr. 

 Tempel, of Marseilles, April 3d. 



Asteroids. Dr. Peters, of Hamilton College, 

 N. Y., discovered the 92d planet, July 26th. It is 

 of the llth magnitude, and has been named 

 " I'mlma." Trot'. Watson, of Ann Arbor, 

 Michigan, discovered the 93d, August 24th, and 

 'ili, September 6tb. The former was situat- 

 ed in the riuiht ascension 1 40', and in declina- 

 tion 3 10' south, and was moving west and 

 south. The latter was observed in the vicinity 

 of N'eptuue. in the right ascension 14 15', and 

 ' 1; : - '' 10' north, and was of the llth 



Themis 24 



Asia 22 



Maia 18 



Atalanta 18 



Echo... ... 17 



magnitude. Planet 90, discovered by Dr. Luther, 

 ha- received the name "Antiope." 



Mr. Stone has formed a table exhibiting the 

 probable dimensions of 71 asteroids. On the 

 .is-nmption that their surfaces have equnl 

 reflective powers, he estimates their relative 

 dimensions from their apparent brilliancy ; and 

 then converts the results into miles, by adopting 

 the diameters of Ceres and Pallas, as determined 

 by the observations of Sir W. Herschel and 

 Lamont. The following are the diameters, as 

 calculated by Mr. Stone, of the five largest and 

 the five smallest asteroids : 



Miles. 



Vesta 214 



Ceres 196 



Pallas 171 



Juno 124 



Hygeia 103 



Works and Memoirs. Among the valua- 

 ble works and memoirs of the year may be 

 mentioned, "The Constellation Seasons," by 

 Richard N. Proctor, London ; "Descriptive As- 

 tronomy," by Geo. F. Chambers, London; 

 an outline Lunar map Zones II. and IV., by W. 

 R. Birt, London; being a catalogue of 203 

 objects, printed for private circulation ; a 

 paper by Benj. Gould, on the determination 

 of the proper motion of stars first observed by 

 J. Lepaute d'Agelet, read before the National 

 Academy of Sciences, at its August meeting; a 

 paper by Gen. J. G. Barnard, on the precession 

 of the equinoxes and nutation, as explained by 

 the theory of the gyroscope, read before the 

 same body ; a paper by Prof. Newcome on the 

 new determination of the distance of the sun ; 

 and one on the periodicity of the aurora, by 

 Prof. Levering, submitted to the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, in 

 August. 



AUSTRALASIA, a division of the globe form- 

 ing a part of Oceanica, extending between the 

 equator and latitude 47 S. and consisting of the 

 Continent of Australia, Tasmania (Van Die- 

 men's Land), New Zealand, and those parts of 

 the Malay Archipelago and Polynesia between 

 longitude 130 and 170 E. Nearly the whole 

 of Australasia is a dependency of Great Britain, 

 which has there the following colonies : 



Square miles. 



New South Wales 823,437 



Victoria 86,881 



South Australia 388,328 



West Australia 978,000 



Queensland 678,000 



Tasmania 26,215 



New Zealand 106,259 



declination (5 



Total 2,582,070 



The following are the latest statistics of these 

 colonies as to population, etc. : 



New South Walc*.\\\ December. IMS, the 

 population of the colony was 411,388, an in- 

 crease over 1864 of 18,799; the number of 

 births in the year had been 17,083, of deaths 

 6,596 ; the number of immigrants introduced 

 at the public expense had been 2,917, at a cost 



