ASTRONOMICAL PROGRESS AND PHENOMENA. 



57 



The Valz prize was given to Herr Sporer for 

 his thirty years' work on the physical consti- 

 tution of the sun. The Rumford medal for 

 1886 has been awarded to Prof. S. P. Lang- 

 ley, for his researches on the solar spectrum. 

 The Council of the Royal Astronomical So- 

 ciety of England have conferred the soci- 

 ety's gold medal upon Profs. Pickering and 

 Pritchard, for their photometric researches. 

 In this country the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences are in future to award three astronom- 

 ical prizes for original research. One, founded 

 by the late Prof. James C. Watson, is to be 

 awarded biennally ; another, established by the 

 widow of the lamented Dr. Draper, who was 

 a distinguished member of the Academy, is 

 to be bestowed annually for best original re- 

 search in astronomical physics ; and the third 

 was instituted by the late Prof. Lawrence 

 Smith, for original research in meteoric as- 

 tronomy. The session held on April 20, 1886, 

 was especially distinguished by the conferring 

 of the first medal ever awarded by the Acad- 

 emy, the Draper gold medal of the value of 

 $200, to Prof. S. P. Langley, for his investiga- 

 tions of the wave-lengths of light in the infra- 

 red and ultra-violet portions of the spectrum. 

 The Watson medal has been conferred upon 

 Dr. B. A. Gould, though its actual bestowal 

 will not take place until 1887. The Smith 

 prize has not yet been awarded. The Warner 

 astronomical prizes for discoveries of comets 

 were first offered in 1882, and have since been 

 annually renewed, the last offer dating March 

 1, 1886, and running to March 1, 1887. The 

 prize as first tendered was $200 in gold for the 

 discovery of a new comet, but was restricted 

 to the United States and Canada. It is now 

 $100, but is open to the world. Since the 

 tabulated list of recipients of this prize in the 

 last volume of the ''Annual Cyclopaedia," the 

 following have been awarded : To Prof. E. E. 

 Barnard, Nashville, Tenn., $200; to Mr. W. 

 R. Brooks, Phelps, N. Y., $200, $100, $100, 

 and $100 ; to Prof. E. E. Barnard, Nashville, 

 Tenn., $100; to Mr. W. H. Finlay, Cape of 

 Good Hope, Africa, $100. Including remu- 

 nerations to the judges of the astronomical 

 essays, the total amount paid by Mr. Warner is 

 $4,200, and he has conferred, upon competitors 

 for the "Red-Sunset" prizes, seven gold med- 

 als of beautiful design and workmanship, each 

 of $60 value, and a " Warner prize for scien- 

 tific discovery," a gold medal also, to Edward 

 D. T., the fourteen-year-old son of Dr. Swift, 

 of Rochester, N. Y., for the discovery of six- 

 teen new nebulae. The astronomical prizes of 

 the French Academy for 1886 were as follows: 

 Lalande prize gold medal, or 450 francs, for 

 most important astronomical discovery; Da- 

 moiseau, 10,000 francs for the best work on the 

 theory of Jupiter's satellites, discussing the 

 observations and deducing the constants con- 

 tained in it, especially that which furnishes a 

 direct determination of the velocity of light; 

 Valz, 460 francs, for the most interesting as- 



tronomical observation made during the year. 

 For the second of these prizes, the Damoiseau, 

 no memoir was presented in 1885, hence the 

 renewal of the offer. 



Observatories in the United States Within the 

 memory of many not yet old, there was not in 

 the United States a single telescope suitable for 

 making the most common astronomical obser- 

 vation ; but now, with commendable pride in 

 the large instruments and observatories, public 

 and private, which are scattered about our 

 country, we may challenge the admiration of 

 the world. The following are a few of the 

 largest refractors of the United States : 



There are, besides, probably one hundred 

 telescopes (both refractors and reflectors) over 

 eight inches in diameter, many of them the 

 property of private individuals, engaged in ce- 

 lestial researches. 



The Lick Telescope and Observatory. The scien- 

 tific world is much elated over the near com- 

 pletion of this giant telescope, with object-glass 

 a yard in diameter, and of the great tower in 

 which it is to be placed. The completed lenses, 

 mounted temporarily at Cambridgeport, Mass., 

 have already been subjected to several trial 

 tests, in the presence of experts, who unhesi- 

 tatingly pronounce the disks perfect and the 

 definition satisfactory. Messrs. Warner & 

 Swasey, of Cleveland, Ohio, specialists in this 

 kind of work and distinguished for great in- 

 genuity and mechanical skill, are to have the 

 mounting completed in April, 1887, at a con- 

 tract price of $42,000. The following data, 

 received from the gentlemen composing the 

 firm, will therefore be interesting as being au- 

 thoritative : The telescope is to rest on a cast- 

 iron, rectangular column, whose dimensions at 

 the base are: North and south, 17 feet; east 

 and west, 10 feet ; at the top, 4x8 feet. The 

 height of the column from the base is 28 

 feet, and its weight about 12 tons. On the 

 top of this column rests the head - casting, 

 weighing 3 tons, which contains the bear- 

 ings of the polar axis. The polar and declina- 

 tion axes of steel are 10 feet long. Their bear- 

 ings are 10 inches and 12 inches and 9 inches 

 and 10 inches, respectively. Bored through 

 the entire length of each axis is a hole 5 

 inches in diameter, which not only serves to 

 lighten it but answers other purposes as well. 

 The clamps for slow motion, with slow-motion 

 shaft for R. A., are placed inside the polar axis, 



