December 2, 1897] 



NATURE 



105 



Snake {Coronella auslriaca) from Hampshire, presented by Mr. 

 E. Penton ; a Mozambique Monkey ( Cercopithecus pygerythrus, 

 i) from East Africa, a Red Deer {Cerviis elaplms), European, 

 deposited ; two Bridled Wallabys {Onychogale frenata) from 

 Australia, an Electric Eel {Gym not us electrictis) from South 

 America, purchased. 



The illustrations for Profs. Parker and Haswell's forth- 

 coming " Text-book of Zoology " have been drawn by Mr. M. P. 

 Parker, and not Mr. N. J. Parker, as announced last week. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Variable Star o Ceti (Mira). — For many years past 

 the brightness of this star at maximum has not come up to 

 expectation, neither has its time of maximum occurred when 

 predicted, a fact which might be accounted for by an irregularity 

 of some twenty-five days either one way or the other. This 

 year, however, as observed on November 28 by Mr. Shackleton, 

 it was already brighter than 7 Ceti (3"38), and nearly as bright 

 as a Ceti (2"44) {Oxford Uranometria}, so that its magnitude will 

 be about 29. Another observation on November 29, made at 

 the Solar Physics Observatory, South Kensington, by the same 

 observer and Mr. Butler, gave its brightness equal to y Eridani 

 (2-8) (U.A) (3-0 H.P.). 



The predicted and observed maxima for the last three years 

 are as follows : — 



Predicted 

 (Observatory Observed. Mag. 



Companion). 



1895 ••• December 9 ... February 27 ... 3*8 



1896 ... November 3 ... February i ... 3*5 



1897 ... November 9 ... ? ... (2'9)? 



From the observations of last year and the period of 332 days, 

 it should be at its maximum about December 30, so that it may 

 still be expected to increase in brightness, though its light curve 

 is very irregular near maximum. 



The Coming Total Solar Eclipse. — Owing to the pre- 

 sence of the plague in some parts of the country near the line of 

 central totality, several parties intending to observe the total 

 solar eclipse of January 22 next have had to make new arrange- 

 ments. At present the following seems to represent the loca- 

 tions of the several parties on the central line. The most western 

 station, Viziadurg, will be occupied by Sir Norman Lockyer 

 with his party, backed up by the officers and crew of one of Her 

 Majesty's ships. Karad, the next station to the east, lying on 

 the Southern Mahratta railway, will be the place of observation 

 by Prof. Michie Smith with his party from the Madras Observa- 

 tory. Prof. Naegamvala with his followers will also probably 

 adopt this region for work. Further to the east lies Talni, 

 where Mr. Newall, Captain Hills, and a party from the 

 British Astronomical Association will be stationed. Where 

 the central line of totality cuts the road between Nagpur and 

 Seoni, Dr. Copeland will take up his station, while about 150 

 miles further along the track, at Sohagpur, the Astronomer 

 Royal and Prof. Turner will be stationed. Still further east- 

 ward, at Buxar on the Ganges, will be located two parties — one 

 consisting of a second section of the British Astronomical Asso- 

 ciation, and the other the main party of the Great Indian 

 Trigonometrical Survey. It is also likely that the Japanese 

 astronomers will be in this neighbourhood. At another station, 

 still further along the line, it is stated that the Fathers of the St. 

 Xavier's College, Calcutta, will make observations. Profs. 

 Campbell, Schaeberle, Todd, and not improbably M. 

 Deslandres, will be present somewhere on the central line, 

 but the actual positions they will take up are not yet definitely 

 known. 



Systematic Observations of Occultations. — Herr H. 

 Batterman has recently published {Aslr. Nach., 3457-8) the 

 individual observations of a very complete set of occultations 

 of stars by the moon, numbering altogether 641. The instru- 

 ment he employed was a Merz refractor of 6 inches aperture and 

 8 feet focal length, and was set up at the Berlin Observatory. 

 The object of these observations was to determine the paral- 

 lactic inequality of the moon, and thence the parallax of the 

 sun. For such an undertaking it was necessary to make ob- 

 servations on as many days as possible, especially near the time 

 of full moon ; the observations had, further, to be regular as 



NO. 1466, VOL. 57] 



regards immersion and emersion, and homogeneous as much as 

 possible over the lunar orbit. Herr Batterman was handicapped 

 very considerably by the local conditions of Berlin, and by being 

 restricted as regards his visible horizon ; but, nevertheless, he 

 was able to secure a considerable number of observations in 

 the two and a quarter years he devoted'to them. This com- 

 munication contains simply the individual observations, but he 

 hopes at some future date to publish the results when the large 

 work of computation has been completed. 



The Variables S Cephei and T Urs/E Majoris. — Mr. 

 C. E. Peek, who is the owner of the Rousdon Observatory, Devon, 

 has just published two very interesting series of observations 

 relating to the light changes of the variables S Cephei and 

 T Urs£E Majoris. All the observations were made with a Merz 

 6 •4-inch equatorial refractor, and each is the mean of fine visual 

 comparisons with stars that are seen in the same field of view 

 as the variable. The author does not, however, state his actual 

 method of observing, but we presume that this will be included 

 in the introduction (No. 1) which he proposes to issue subse- 

 quently. In addition to the list of the individual observations, 

 Mr. Peek has plotted the curves representing the light changes 

 during this period of ten years (1887-1896 inclusive) over which 

 the observations extend. These curves do not appear to have 

 been smoothed, so that they represent the observed light fluc- 

 tuations. In the case of T Ursae Majoris, there is a very sug- 

 gestive brightening about the time of minimum in nearly all the 

 curves of this variable here drawn, and it would be interesting 

 to know if other observers have recorded it. 



Some Systems of Meteors.— Prof. Th. Bredikine con- 

 tributes to the Bulletin of the St. Petersburg Academy {5th 

 series, vol. v. No. 5) an investigation with the object of deter- 

 mining which member or members of our solar system have a 

 disturbing action on those systems of meteors which the earth 

 passes through in her revolution round the sun. The disturbing 

 agents taken into account are : the action of some major 

 planet, that of the earth, which is somewhat of the second order, 

 and last, but not least, that of the sun, whose power acts in two 

 ways, namely, first by attraction, and secondly by creating great 

 disturbances in the nucleus. In nearly all cases the sun's effect 

 is predominant, especially when the distance at perihelion 

 passage is small, but sometimes a near approach to one of the 

 major planets is very marked. Prof. Bredikine has previously 

 shown that from an examination of comets' tails the force of 

 projection at the times of outbursts is sufficient to convert the 

 orbits of several of the composing particles from parabolic to 

 elliptic of short period. He assumes that all meteor streams 

 contain particles originally belonging to comets which passed 

 through the solar system, and lost matter by disturbing actions 

 of the members of this system. Employing as a starting-point 

 the positions of some of the more prominent radiant points, as 

 given in the catalogue published by Mr. Denning in the Monthly 

 Notices (May 1890), he investigates the probable disturbing agent 

 in each case. Most of the meteor streams dealt with have, 

 according to this investigation, resulted from large disturbances 

 at the nucleus caused by the sun itself; among these are the 

 Leonids, Quadrantides, Geminides, Aquarides, &c. The 

 Orionides owe their presence to the planet disturbing influence 

 of Jupiter, while the Lyrids are due to that of Saturn. 



Comet Perrixe (October 16). — The ephemeris of comet 

 Perrine, which we have recently given in this column, begins 

 now to indicate variations from the observed place. Herr 

 Moller {Astr. Nachr., No. 3459) has therefore determined new 

 elements from the variation of proportionate distances, using 

 the observations made on October 16, Mount Hamilton ; 

 October 24, Hamburg; and November I, Arcetri, Florence. 

 The following are the new computed positions : — 



Ephemeris, \2.h. Berlin 3f. T. 



Decl. log r. log A. Br. 



0-1334 ... 0-0539 ... 0-7 



1897. R.A. 



h. m. s. . < 



Dec. 2 ... 18 10 37 ... -f54 56-5 



3 ••• 10 4 ••• 5*250 



4-- 9 33 ••• 53 54-6 



5 ... 9 4 - 5325*4 



6 ... 8 38 ... 5257-2 



7 ... 8 14 ... 52 300 



8 ... 7 52 ... 52 3'8 



9 •• 7 31 ... 51 38-5 

 10 ... 18 7 12 ... -t-51 14-2 



0-1325 ... 00704 ... 0-6 



01325 ... 00858 ... 0-6 



