54 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGRESS. 



nebula visible in northern latitudes, and is so 

 distinctly seen with the naked eye as to be 

 constantly announced as a new cornet. Ac- 

 counts have come down to us of its having 

 been observed nearly a thousand years ago, 

 and during this interval it has maintained an 

 unvarying degree of brightness, so that it is 

 reasonable to suppose that until now no change 

 in its appearance has taken place since the crea- 

 tion of man. 



Although some seven thousand nebula are 

 telescopically visible, and a majority of them 

 have been frequently observed since the time 

 of Sir William Herschel, yet no previous well- 

 attested instance of a star having thus sud- 

 denly appeared in a nebula is on record. The 

 exception to this rule, usually cited in the case 

 of T. Scorpii, is not well taken, as the star 

 manifested itself in a cluster of stars, and not, 

 as in the present case, in a nebula. 



It would be difficult to overestimate the im- 

 portance of this discovery, which, being a new 

 experience to astronomers, must deservedly at- 

 tract attention. It is evident that its coming 

 is too recent and observations on it too few to 

 warrant the framing at present of any hypothe- 

 sis to account for its appearance, the source 

 whence it came, the nature and cause of the 

 change if produced from the nebula itself, and 

 the duration of visibility. These are but a 

 few of the many questions that confront the 

 astronomer, and the results of telescopic, spec- 

 troscopic, and photographic investigations of 

 both the star and the nebula will be awaited 

 with an anxiety which no former astronomical 

 phenomenon has awakened. It is a clean-cut 

 star without the haziness belonging to a stellar 

 center of a small bright condensation found in 

 so many of the nebulaB. This sudden transfor- 

 mation of the center of a nebula into a star, or, 

 in other words, into a sun like our own, is an 

 event as stupendous as it is incomprehensible. 

 Spectroscopic analysis of the star gives a con- 

 tinuous spectrum, which indicates that the light 

 emanates from an incandescent solid or liquid. 

 The nebula also gives the same spectrum, and 

 shows that its light is not from heated gas, but 

 that it is a mighty cluster of stars which no 

 telescopic power has as yet been able to re- 

 solve. 



The adherents of the nebular hypothesis will 

 doubtless claim here a confirmation of their 

 views regarding the formation of stellar and 

 planetary systems from condensation of nebu- 

 lous masses into suns, planets, and satellites. 



The Liek Telescope. The flint disk, thirty- 

 eight inches in diameter, for the 36-inch tele- 

 scope for the Lick Observatory on the summit 

 of Mount Hamilton, California, has lain un- 

 touched for several years in the optical estab- 

 lishment of Alvan Clark & Sons, at Cambridge- 

 port, Mass.. awaiting its counterpart, the crown 

 disk. M. Feil & Son, of Paris, who contracted 

 to furnish these glasses, have, after some twenty 

 failures to produce a crown disk of the neces- 

 sary optical perfection, at last achieved success 



and the Messrs. Clark are in daily expectation 

 of its arrival, and so, though the prospect of 

 the completion of "the most powerful tele- 

 scope in the world " is encouraging, yet some 

 time must elapse before the finished telescope 

 will be ready for shipment to its final destina- 

 tion. As the opticians can not determine with- 

 out trial the focal length of the object-glass, 

 so also until this factor shall have been ascer- 

 tained the mammoth dome which is to cover it 

 can not be planned. It is hoped that in two 

 years both will have been completed, and the 

 bequest of Mr. Lick for the construction of the 

 "most powerful telescope in the world " will 

 have produced the best as well as the largest 

 refractor by six inches ever yet attempted. 



Astronomical Prizes. The Lalande prize for 

 1885 has been awarded to M. Radau for his 

 various astronomical works, more particularly 

 for his memoir on the theory of astronomical 

 refractions. 



The Valz prize was given to M. Ginzel for hi 

 discussion of forty-three ancient solar eclipses, 

 total and annular. He has derived from this 

 discussion a new determination of the numer- 

 ical value of the secular acceleration of the 

 moon's mean motion, which confirms the dif- 

 ference between theory and observation, though 

 slightly lessening the amount. 



At the annual meeting of the Royal Astro- 

 nomical Society of England, in February, 1885, 

 the council awarded the society's gold medal 

 to Dr. Huggins for his researches in the mo- 

 tions of stars in the line of sight, and in the pho- 

 tographic spectra of stars and comets. This 

 medal is presented to astronomers regard- 

 less of nationality or of theme for original 

 research in any branch of astronomical litera- 

 ture. Four Americans Profs. Bond, New- 

 comb, Hall, and Gould have received it. 



In 1881 Mr. H. H. Warner, the founder and 

 endower of the observatory bearing his name, 

 offered a prize of $200 in gold to each discov- 

 erer in the United States and Canada of a new 

 and unexpected comet during that year. This 

 offer gave such an impetus to comet-seeking as 

 to induce its repetition, which has been contin- 

 ued through each subsequent year. In conse- 

 quence, these discoveries in the United States 

 have been threefold those of all the world be- 

 sides. The recipients have been as follows : 

 Schaeberle, one prize; Brooks, three prizes; 

 Barnard, four prizes ; Swift, three prizes. Mr. 

 Warner has now standing, in addition, an offer 

 of a prize of $200 for the best essay on the 

 cause of the red sunsets of the past two years. 



The annexed letter, recently received by Al- 

 van Clark & Sons from the eminent Russian 

 astronomer, Otto Struve, is itself the best ex- 

 planation of the prize under consideration, and 

 also of the reasons for its award : 



PULKOWA, eft% 28, 18S& 



ALVAN CLARK & SONS My dear Friends : I am 

 asked by the Government to inform you that, in ac- 

 knowledgment of the excellent performance of the 

 great object-glass furnished by your firm, his Majes- 

 ty the Emperor has been graciously pleased to con- 



