54 



ASTRONOMY, PROGRESS OF, IN 1894. 



trapezium of Orion, or Theta Orionis, ho enters 

 into an elaborate examination of the alleged 

 discoveries with small telescopes of stars in 

 and about the trapezium, and gives a diagram 

 of all that have been seen by the 86-inch tele- 

 scope, amounting to only 3, besides the 6 well- 

 known ones forming the trapezium. In the 

 progress of his study of the double stars he has 

 discovered 9 new nebulae, has taken measures of 

 28 planetary nel>ula\ and has made observations 

 of the physical structure of 38 other nebulw. 

 The importance attaching to the micrornetrical 

 measurements of the planetary nebulae arises 

 from the fact that almost every one has a star in 

 its exact center. The precise place of a nebula 

 which has within it no visible star can not be 

 accurately determined. Though, doubtless, all 

 are in motion, yet no movement has ever been 

 determined in any nebula, or any variation in 

 brightness. 



" Monthly Notices " of the Royal Astronom- 

 ical Society of England, for June, 1894, contains 

 2 maps drawn from Dreyer's New General Cata- 

 logue of nebulae and clusters, made on an equal- 

 surface projection, showing their general dis- 

 tribution in both the northern and the southern 

 heavens. The resolvable nebulae are marked 

 with red dots, the irresolvable with black, and the 

 clusters are indicated by a cross. The author is 

 Sidney Watters. 



Another valuable record may be found in No. 

 325 of the "Astronomical Journal," which is 

 wholly occupied by Dr. Barnard, of Lick Ob- 

 servatory, with accounts of the micrometrical 

 measurements, by the 36-inch glass, of the fifth 

 satellite of Jupiter and of the planet Jupiter 

 itself. He, the discoverer of the new satellite, 

 looks with disfavor on the numerous proposi- 

 tions by astronomers to confer upon this little 

 pew-found moon a mythological name, and his 

 wish is that it be known simply as the fifth 

 satellite of Jupiter. These are the results of his 

 measures of the planet: Equatorial diameter, 

 90,190 56 miles; polar diameter, 84,570 75 

 miles ; polar compression, -rsVg-. 



Dr. Barnard finally adopts as the period of 

 the new satellite 11J 57 m 22-618' 0-013". 



Cordoba Ihtrclumutenma. Vol. XVI of the 

 publications of the Observatorio National Argen- 

 tina contains the first installment of an immense 

 and most important work. It is a continuance 

 from the southern limit in reality overlapping 

 it by one degree of the celebrated astronomers 

 Argelander and Schonfield of their Dnrchmus- 

 terung, and records the positions and magnitudes 

 of all the stars to the tenth magnitude inclusive, 

 from south declination 22 to 32. 



Vol. XVII continues the Dnrchmusterung 

 from declination south 32 to 42. In the two 

 volumes are comprised the positions and magni- 

 tudes of 340,380 stars from the first to the tenth 

 magnitudes. The area covered is 6,075 square 

 degrees of a great circle. It shows an average 

 density of 56*2 stars to a square degree. In the 

 Milky Way the density occasionally reached to 

 100 stars. For the preparation of both cata- 

 logues 1,108,000 observations were required. 

 This herculean work was performed between 

 1885 and 1891 by Prof. John M. Thome, director 

 of the Cordoba Observatory, Argentine lie-public, 

 and is comprised in 12 charts, 20 by 26 inches in 



size, containing the places of 340,380 stars of the 

 proper magnitudes, and positions for the epoch 

 1875-0. 



Chandler's Second Catalogue of Variable 

 Stars. All who take an interest in stars of 

 this kind will welcome the appearance of this 

 list. Its arrangement is very complete in re- 

 spect to place, color, limits of range, period, 

 epoch, and terms of inequality, while interesting 

 particulars are added in footnotes. It is con- 

 sidered a valuable acquisition to the literature 

 of variable stars. 



In Nos. 3233 and 3234 of the Astronomische 

 Naclirichten, double-star observers will find a 

 catalogue of 187 double stars observed by Prof. 

 G. W. Hough with the 18^-inch refractor of 

 Evanston, 111, and a series of measures of 182 

 known pairs. 



Vol. Ill, '"Annals of Lick Observatory," fol- 

 lows quickly the appearance of Vol. II. It con- 

 tains 4 monographs of different subjects, the 

 most valuable of the series being by Prof. James 

 E. Keeler, now director of Allegheny Observa- 

 tory, but formerly of the Lick Observatory staff. 

 The treatise relates to his spectroscopic obser- 

 vations of nebulae with the appliances on Mount 

 Hamilton. He establishes beyond controversy 

 that the principal nebular line has no connec- 

 tion whatever with the magnesium fluting. His 

 determination of the wave length of the nebular 

 line is 5,007'OS 03 tenth metres, and that of the 

 magnesium fluting 4,959-02 04 tenth metres. It 

 follows, therefore, that neither of these lines 

 coincides with that of any known terrestrial 

 element. The third nebular line is the H /3, 

 one of the hydrogen lines. The motion of a 

 nebula to or from the earth may be determined 

 by the displacement of the hyd'rogen line. In 

 this manner Dr. Keeler ascertained that the 

 famous Orion nebula is traveling away from the 

 sun, or that the sun and solar system are leav- 

 ing the nebula, at the rate of about 11 miles a 

 second. Also that, on the other hand, Struve 

 VI a planetary nebula, right ascension 18 h 7 m , 

 declination north 6 50' is moving toward us 

 apparently 6-5 miles a second. 



Prizes. The Arago medal, of the value of 

 1,000 francs, was awarded to Dr. E. E. Barnard 

 by the French Academy of Sciences on Dec. '18, 

 1893, for the discovery of the fifth satellite of 

 .1 upiter. It was at the same time conferred upon 

 Prof. Asaph Hall, in recognition of his finding 

 of the two moons of Mars in 1877. Only one 

 other has received it Leverier, for his discovery 

 of Neptune. 



The gold medal of the Royal Astronomical 

 Society of England has been received by Prof. 

 S. W. Burn ham, of the University of Chicago, 

 for his discoveries and micrometrical measures 

 of double stars, and for his researches on the 

 orbital motions of binary systems. The number 

 of double stars discovered by him is about 1,300. 



The Lalande prize was bestowed upon M. 

 Schulhof for cometary work. 



The Valz prize fell to Herr Berberich for 

 work on the asteroids, and the Janssen gold 

 medal was awarded to Prof. Langley, for as- 

 tronomical physics. 



The Donohoe comet prize bronze medal has 

 been forwarded to Mr. Gale for the discovery of 

 comet b 1894. This medal was awarded to Mr. 



