ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES 



constructed in 1908. The principal instruments are 

 a 6-inch refractor and a 6-inch photographic tele- 

 scope of forty feet focus, mounted horizontally and 

 fed by a coelostat mirror. The department of as- 

 tronomy maintains a local astronomical society and 

 issues a journal. 



There are several other college observatories 

 that deserve mention: the observatory of the Col- 

 lege of the Pacific, established in San Jose in 1885, 

 which has a 6-inch Clark equatorial; the observa- 

 tory of Mills College, Oakland, erected in 1887, and 

 provided with a 5-inch refractor and an 8-inch re- 

 flector; and the observatory of the University of 

 Santa Clara, Santa Clara, California, whose principal 

 instruments are a 7-inch refractor and a 6-inch 

 photoheliograph. This observatory possessed a 

 4-inch telescope, with altazimuth mounting, as early 

 as 1860. In addition to its use for instruction, the 

 equipment is employed in solar observation. 



While excellent instruction in the elements of 

 astronomy has been given at Stanford University 

 from its beginning, no provision was made for an 

 observatory. A 6-inch reflecting telescope is now 

 in process of construction in the shops of the en- 

 gineering department, and a suitable dome has 

 been built. 



There is a small observatory at the Mare Island 

 Navy Yard, whose work is confined to time de- 

 terminations, upon which the Western Union Tele- 

 graph Company depends for the accurate time sig- 

 nals which it distributes. The Lowe Observatory, 

 erected in 1894 on Echo Mountain, a shoulder of 

 Mount Lowe, north of Pasadena, California, con- 

 tains a 16-inch Clark refractor, made famous by 

 the comets and nebulae discovered with it by Dr. 

 Lewis Swift. It is now used entirely for the enter- 

 tainment of visitors. 



All of the institutions so far described are lo- 

 cated within the state of California, but there are 

 other observatories, outside of the State, within the 

 Pacific area. Chief of these is the Lowell Observa- 

 tory, located at Flagstaff, Arizona (altitude 7250 

 feet), on the line of the Santa Fe railroad. The 

 institution is the personal property of its director, 

 Mr. Percival Lowell, and was established in 1894, 

 primarily for the purpose of studying the details of 

 planetary surfaces particularly those of Mars. The 

 principal telescopes are a 24-inch Clark refractor, 

 and a 40-inch reflector, also provided by the Alvan 

 Clark Sons. 



The work of Mr. Lowell and his assistants has 

 added greatly to our knowledge of the planets of 

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