ASTRONOMICAL PROGRESS IN 1899. 



59 



the solar system in space nearly toward Alpha 

 Lyrse, according to Prof. Newcomb. 



"All stars, including our Sun, which is also a 

 star, are in motion. To us they appear to move 

 very slowly, which is owing to their great distance, 

 whereas in many instances the motion is exceed- 

 ingly rapid. Hitherto the most rapid known was 

 1830 Groombridge, called the " runaway star." 

 A very interesting star in this respect has re- 

 cently been discovered in connection with Prof. 

 Capteyn's work on the Cape of Good Hope photo- 

 graphic Durchmustcrnny. It is of the eighth 

 magnitude, in right ascension 5 h 6 m 40 s , declina- 

 tion south 44 58.2'. It has a proper motion 

 of 9" of arc, exceeding that of 1830 Groom- 

 bridge by about 12". Its rapidity of motion would 

 indicate that it may have a large parallax, and 

 prove it to be our nearest stellar neighbor. The 

 circle of the sky, like all circles, contains 1,296,- 

 000", which, divided by 9, gives 144,000, the 

 time required to complete the circle of the sky. 

 The number of miles an hour which such a mo- 

 tion implies depends on the star's distance, which 

 is unknown. 



Prizes. The fifth Watson gold medal has 

 been awarded by the American National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences to Dr. David Gill, astronomer 

 royal at the Cape of Good Hope, the value of 

 whose labors in astronomy is everywhere appre- 

 ciated. The Laland prize of the French Academy 

 of Sciences was aw r arded to Dr. S. C. Chandler, 

 editor of Gould's Astronomical Journal, for con- 

 tributions to astronomy. The Damoisean prize 

 was bestowed on Prof. G. W. Hill, of Washing- 

 ton; the Valtz prize, on M. P. Colon, of Mada- 

 gascar; the Janssen prize, on M. Belopolsky, of 

 the Imperial Observatory of St. Petersburg. The 

 Bruce gold medal was awarded to Dr. Auwers 

 for various kinds of astronomical work, but espe- 

 cially for largely contributing to the determina- 

 tion of the solar parallax. 



Variation of Latitude. Dr. S. C. Chandler 

 frequently publishes a paper in his Astronomical 

 Journal on the variation of latitude and its 

 cause. He contends that recent observations 

 tend strongly to confirm the truth of his hypothe- 

 sis that the axis of rotation of the Earth is not 

 at the pole itself, but within it, and that, in- 

 stead of being stationary, it describes a small 

 ellipse with axes 0.30" and 0.08" in a year, its 

 major axis lying along a meridian 45 to the 

 east of Greenwich. Astronomers are about equal- 

 ly divided as to the truth of the hypothesis. 



End of the Century. The year A. D. 1900 is 

 the last one of the nineteenth century, and not, 

 as many suppose, the first of the twentieth, 

 and as it closes a remarkable century, and is 

 of itself a remarkable year also, it seems ad- 

 visable to explain why it is not the beginning 

 of the next century, and also why it is a remark- 

 able year. It must be borne in mind that the 

 year of Christ's birth w r as A. D. 1, the previous 

 year being B. c. 1, there having been no year 0. 

 Therefore, supposing he was born, as we reckon 

 time, on Jan. 1, A. D. 1, and as it requires one 

 hundred years to make a century, it is plainly 

 evident that the first century ended at midnight 

 of Dec. 31, A. D. 100. Immediately after, Jan. 1, 

 A. D. 101, the second century began, and in like 

 manner the third began Jan. 1, A. D. 201, and the 

 twentieth will begin Jan. 1, A. D. 1901, nineteen 

 centuries not having been completed until mid- 

 night of Dec. 31, A. D. 1900. Nineteen hundred is 

 divisible by 4, without a remainder, and yet 1900 

 will not be a leap year. The rule for calculating 

 leap years, briefly told, is as follows: All common 

 years divisible by 4 and centennial years by 400, 



without remainders, are leap years. The year 

 1900, being a centennial year, but not divisible 

 by 400, is a common year, the like of which has 

 not happened in one hundred years. If the year 

 consisted of an exact number of days, no leap 

 year would be necessary. Also, if its length was 

 exactly three hundred and sixty-five days and six 

 hours, a leap year once in four years would keep 

 the same seasons to the same months forever as 

 they now exist, winter never occurring in July 

 and August. For convenience we call the year 

 three hundred and sixty-five days and six hours, 

 while it is only three hundred and sixty-five days 

 five hours forty-eight minutes and forty-six sec- 

 onds, an annual difference of eleven minutes and 

 fourteen seconds, which in four years amounts 

 to forty-four minutes and fifty-six seconds, so 

 that at every leap year we are adding forty-four 

 minutes and fifty-six seconds too much, which in 

 a hundred years amounts to eighteen hours 

 forty-three minutes and twenty seconds, or more 

 than three fourths of a day/. By calling each 

 centennial year a common year too much would 

 be dropped by five hours sixteen minutes and 

 forty seconds, or nearly a quarter of a day; 

 therefore each fourth centennial is called a leap 

 year, the extra day being dropped from the other 

 three, which produces an almost exact correction, 

 the error amounting to but one day in thirty- 

 six hundred years. 



This is according to the Gregorian calendar, a 

 correction of the Julian calendar, which provided 

 for the leap years but not for the centennials 

 which are not divisible by 400. Some countries 

 were slow in adopting the Gregorian calendar, 

 notably England, and Russia has not yet adopted 

 it, though an effort is being made to do so at 

 the beginning of the twentieth century. At the 

 time this calendar was adopted in England an 

 error of eleven days had accrued, which had to 

 be dropped, and this accounts for the celebration 

 of Washington's birthday on Feb. 22, although 

 he was born on the llth, as reckoned at that 

 time. All our Presidents, with the single excep- 

 tion of Jefferson, were elected in a leap year, 

 and the President to be elected in 1900 will also 

 be elected in a common year; but this will not 

 again happen until A. D. 2100, which, like 1900, 

 will be divisible by 4 but not by 400. It therefore 

 follows that a person born on Feb. 29 (as is the 

 case with the writer) enjoyed his last birthday 

 in 1896, and the next will not occur until 1904. 



Eclipse Expedition. The eclipse expedition 

 to India was made possible by the generosity 

 of Mr. W. M. Pierson, and was under the imme- 

 diate charge of Mr. C. Burckhalter, of the Chabot 

 Observatory, at Oakland, Cal., who, with the aid 

 of two or three volunteers, carried out his work 

 with perfect success. His place of observation 

 was only two miles from Prof. Campbell's camp 

 of the Lick Observatory party. The unusual 

 brightness of the sky and terrestrial surround- 

 ings, w r hich w r as very marked, was ascribed to 

 the presence of much atmospheric dust. The 

 Pierson photographic telescope had been pro- 

 vided with a duplicate lens and tube in case of 

 accidents. The photographs taken by the latter 

 were good, but those of the Pierson lens, in which 

 the exposures were controlled by a new device, 

 show the finest at the Sun's limb, and also the 

 greatest extension of the corona, equal to 2J 

 diameters of the Moon, all upon the same plate, 

 a thing never before accomplished. By this 

 method, if allowance be made for the extreme 

 brightness of the inner corona, which has always 

 been underrated, results of great value may be 

 secured in future eclipses. 



