44 



ASTRONOMICAL PROGRESS AND PHENOMENA. 



The first was discovered by Mr. Chandler in 

 the constellation Cygnus, R. A. = 20" 47'5 ni , 

 dec]. = + 34 14' (DM. + 34, 4181). Its light 

 varies from 7'1 magnitude to about 7'9 magni- 

 tude, and the period is some aliquot part of 

 5'997 days, which can not be exactly determined 

 until further observations are obtained. The 

 second star referred to was discovered by Mr. 

 E. F. Sawyer, in March, 1887, in the constella- 

 tion Canis Major, and as it is the first undoubt- 

 ed variable found in that constellation, it will 

 probably be known as R Canis Majoris. Its 

 position for 1887 is R. A. = 7" 14'4 m ; decl. = 

 16 11'. The minimum observed by Mr. 

 Sawyer was 6'8 magnitude, and the period is 

 probably about twenty-seven hours. 



The new variable discovered by Mr. Gore on 

 Dec. 13, 1885, has continued to receive careful 

 attention at the hands of several observers. 

 From a series of observations with the Zollner 

 photometer of the Potsdam Observatory, Dr. 

 Muller found that the star attained its maxi- 

 mum (6-20 magnitude) on Dec. 12, 1886, 

 which would give it a period of 364 days. In 

 substantial agreement with this result is Mr. 

 Sawyer's maximum of the 66 magnitude, ob- 

 served on Dec. 13, 1886. 



For the past four years the observatory of 

 Harvard College has published an annual state- 

 ment of the number of observations made dur- 

 ing the previous year upon each variable star. 

 In the fifth of these publications, to appear dur- 

 ing 1888, Prof. Pickering proposes to give a 

 statement of the number of dates of observation 

 of each variable star during each year since its 

 discovery, and he requests all who are inter- 

 ested in this department of astronomy to co- 

 operate by contributing any information that 

 will assist him in making this index as com- 

 plete as possible. 



Doable and Binary Stars. The following table 

 contains the results of computations of the 

 orbits of binary stars. The star 8 Equulei is 

 of especial interest, as the period of eleven 

 years and a half assigned to it is the shortest 

 known. Wrublewsky's orbit gives for 1887"24, 

 position angle = 204'9 ; distance = 0'48". 

 Further observations are very desirable : 



Prof. G. W. Hough, of the Dearborn Obser- 

 vatory, Chicago, has published a valuable cata- 

 logue of 209 new double stars discovered and 

 measured by himself, with the 18^-inch Clark 

 refractor of that institution. 



A short list of thirteen new double stars, dis- 

 covered by Messrs. Leavenworth and Muller 



with the 26-inch McCormick refractor, is pub- 

 lished in No. 156 of the "Astronomical Journal/' 



Pleiades. The details of Dr. Elkin's deter- 

 mination of the relative positions of the prin- 

 cipal stars in the Pleiades have been published 

 as Part I of the first volume of " Transactions " 

 of the Astronomical Observatory of Yale Uni- 

 versity. This is, we believe, the first heliome- 

 ter-work done in this country. Dr. Elkin has 

 included all the stars in the "Durchmuste- 

 rung " down to the 9'2 magnitude, which may 

 reasonably be said to fall within the group. 

 One of the stars used by Bessel in his cele- 

 brated work with the Konigsberg heliometer 

 was omitted on account of its faintness, but 

 Dr. Elkin has added seven teen stars to Bessel's 

 list of fifty-three, so that he has taken sixty- 

 nine stars in all. 



With the filar micrometer of the Washing- 

 ton 26-inch telescope, Prof. Hall has measured 

 the positions of sixty-three small stars in the 

 Pleiades relatively to the brighter stars deter- 

 mined by Bessel and Elkin; thus furnishing 

 data for testing in the future whether or not 

 there is any proper motion of the brighter 

 stars relatively to the fainter ones. 



Star - Catalogues. Argelander's " Durchmns- 

 terung," or survey of the northern heavens, 

 has been extended from 2 south declination 

 to 23 south declination, by Dr. Schonfeld, 

 who has recently published his results as vol- 

 ume viii of the Bonn Observatory "Beo- 

 bachtungen." This catalogue contains the 

 places of 133,659 stars within the limits men- 

 tioned, together with an additional 1,173 stars 

 falling beyond these limits, all referred to the 

 epoch of Argelander's work, namely, 1855'0. 

 In the atlas accompanying the volume each 

 chart embraces one hour of right ascension, 

 with an overlap of four minutes on either side, 

 and 22 of declination, reaching from 1 to 

 23. Dr. Thome, of Cordoba, is extending 

 Schonfeld's work to the south pole, and has 

 already gone over 10 of declination. 



Among recent star-catalogues are Romberg's 

 and Kam's compilations of the star-places 

 scattered through the volumes of the "As- 

 tronomische Nachrichten," and Respighi's 

 mean declinations of 1,004 naked-eye stars ob- 

 served with the meridian circle of the Cam- 

 pidoglio Observatory during 1879, 1880, and 

 1881. An important list of 480 stars, to be 

 used as fundamental points for zone observa- 

 tions between 20 and 80 south declination, is 

 published by Dr. Auwers, in the June (1887) 

 number of the "Monthly Notices of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society." 



Dr. C. H. F. Peters, Director of the Litch- 

 field Observatory, Clinton, N. Y., has contrib- 

 uted two valuable papers to the third volume 

 of the " Memoirs of the United States Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences." The first paper 

 is a critical examination of all data bearing 

 on Flamsteed's twenty-two " missing " stars, 

 and in every case Dr. Peters has formulated a 

 plausible explanation of the supposed disap- 



