Nov. 29, 1877] 



NATURE 



83 



the earliest proof of a common translation in space was 

 given by the same observer from the Madras observations 

 1853-58, which formed a part of vol. xxviii. of the Memoirs 

 of the Royal Astronomical Society. Not having seen any 

 distinct reference to the very large and uniform motions 

 of these stars in astronomical treatises, we adverted to 

 them in Nature as above. 



Again, the common proper motions of Regulus and 

 Lalande 19749, mentioned by M. Flammarion in the same 

 communication have been long remarked. The same 

 may be said in the case of 9 and 10 Ursae Majoris, one of 

 the systems to which he refers in a paper presented to the 

 Academy on November 12. Any one who has carefully 

 utilised the very valuable fourteenth volume of the Dorpat 

 observations must have been familiar with this case, and, 

 we may add many similar ones, though the proper 

 motions involved may be to smaller amount. This volume 

 contains Madler's laborious work upon 3222 of Bradley's 

 stars, of which he gives positions reduced to 1850, and 

 where all the catalogues available at the time and con- 

 sidered deserving of confidence were brought to bear. 

 Not the least important feature in this work is the addition 

 of two columns, not usually found in catalogues, contain- 

 ing the amount of secular proper motion in arc of great 

 circle {r) and the angular direction of this motion (0) 

 counted from north round by east to 360°. On p. 155 we 

 have — 



For 9 i Ursae Majoris ... r= 52"-5 ... </> = 238°'9 

 „ 10 „ .... r- S2"-6 ... (/> = 238'-5 



But, as we have stated, other similar cases are readily 

 detected by an inspection of these columns. For in- 

 stance : in y and 58 Tauri, distant 35', where r= 13", 

 = 97° ; in 66 and 68 Draconis, distant 43', r = I3"*5, 

 c/) about 69° and for wider stars, in 26 and 34 Pegasi, dis- 

 tant 4° 25', where r = 30''', = 84° ; in rj and 10 Arietis, 

 distant 5° 11', r= is"'5, = 86°, with other neighbouring 

 stars, moving in nearly the same direction, and again in 

 fi and 54 Aquilas, distant 5" 13', r = 27", (j) = 121°. The 

 hst might be largely increased. 



It is nevertheless to be expected that the researches 

 which M. Flammarion is so industriously following up 

 with respect to stellar systems may lead to a considerable 

 addition to our knowledge of them, in cases which are 

 not thus easily discovered from existing catalogues, par- 

 ticularly by determining the proper motions of stars, not 

 yet submitted to such investigation. 



The Minor Planets.— A letter from Prof. Watson, 

 of Ann Arbor, U.S., to M. Yvon Villarceau, dated 

 November 5, deranges the ordinal numbers of the small 

 planets given in this column last week, from No. 175 

 onwards. It appears that on October i he discovered a 

 planet lom., which he duly notified by telegraph to the 

 Smithsonian Institution, but by some unexplained cir- 

 cumstance the information was not transmitted by cable 

 to the Observatory of Paris, as usual with such dis- 

 coveries. Supposing this object to be really a fiera 

 planet, it will be No. 175, and the subsequent discoveries 

 mentioned last week will be on the same supposition, 

 advanced a unit. Elements of No. 172 appear in Astron. 

 Nach., No. 2,176, and of No. 176 in the Paris Bulletin 

 International of November 25. 



The Cordoba Observatory.— Within the last few 

 days, Mr. John M. Thome, the zealous co-operator with 

 Dr. B. A. Gould in the important astronomical work 

 carried on for several years past at the Observatory of the 

 Argentine Republic, has visited this country on his return 

 to Cordoba from the United States. We have seen in his 

 hands proofs of the charts of the Argentine " Urano- 

 metria," which are on a much larger scale than those of 

 Argelander, Heis, and Behrmann. They have been 

 engraved in New York. This work is expected to be 

 soon published ; also large lunar photographs taken at 

 Cordoba. All the stars in the " Uranometria" have been 

 meridionally observed. 



CARL VON LITTROiV 



r^ARL LUDWIG VON LITTROW, whose death has 

 ^^ been announced during the past week, was born at 

 Kasanonjuly 18, 181 1, His father, Joseph Johann von Lit- 

 troA', the eminent astronomer, afterwards Director of the 

 Imperial Observatory at Vienna, was at that time Professor 

 of Astronomy in the Universityof Kasan.where he founded 

 an observatory. The son was educated under the father's 

 direction, and in 1831 was appointed assistant at the 

 Observatory at Vienna, of which institution the elder 

 Littrow had taken the superintendence in 1819, removing 

 thence from Ofen. In 1835 he first appeared as an 

 astronomical writer, having in that year published an 

 account of Hell's Journey to Wardoe and of his Obser- 

 vations of the Transit of Venus in 1769 at that place, 

 from the original day-books ; also a History of the Dis- 

 covery of General Gravitation, by Newton, and Treatises 

 upon Comets, more especially on Halky's, which was 

 then appearing. In 1839 he published at Stutgard a 

 Celestial Atlas, and a work which in the Catalogue of the 

 Pulkova Library is called a Translation of Airy's " Popu- 

 lare physische Astronomic," by which is most probably 

 intended the well-known Treatise on Gravitation pub- 

 lished by the Astronomer-Royal in 1834, though elsewhere 

 Littrow's work is stated to refer to the history of Astro- 

 nomy during the early part of the nineteenth century, 

 presented to the British Association in 1832. 



In 1842 Carl von Littrow succeeded his father as 

 "Director of the Observatory of Vienna, and the establish- 

 ment has continued in vigorous activity under his charge. 

 He has principally devoted the energies of the Obser- 

 vatory to equatorial astronomy, following up with dili- 

 gence the observations of comets and planets, and with 

 the aid of able assistants determining their orbits. 

 Some of the most complete com^tary discussions have 

 emanated from the Observatory of Vienna while under 

 his charge. The Annalen der Sternwarte in Wien, 

 have been continued, and valuable, astronomical work 

 is contained in them, as for instance in the first volume of 

 the third series, which appeared in 185 1, where we have 

 the positions of the stars in Argelander's Northern Zones 

 reduced, by Oeltzen to 1842, the epoch for which elements 

 of reduction were given in the Bonn volume. Littrow was 

 a frequent contributor to the publications of the Vienna 

 Academy. In one of his memoirs — " Bahnahen zwischen 

 den periodischen gestirnen des Sonnensystems," printed 

 in the Sitzungsberichte of the Academy for January, 1854, 

 he applied an original process of investigation of the 

 points of nearest approach amongst the orbits of the 

 small planets discovered up to that time, and the orbits of 

 the periodical comets — a troublesome work in which 

 mechanical aid was introduced ; the result was the dis- 

 covery of many close approximations of planets with 

 planets, planets with comets, and of comets with comets ; 

 amongst the latter near approaches of Biela's comet to 

 the orbit of Halley's in 35° and 198" heliocentric longitude. 

 When interest was excited relative to the expected return 

 of the comet of 1556, which at that period was supposed 

 to have been previously observed in 1264, Littrow was 

 the means of bringing to light an unknown treatise by 

 Heller, which, with the chart of Fabricius, has allowed of 

 a much improved determination of the orbit, and similarly 

 he made known interesting particulars with reference to 

 the remarkable observation by Steinheibel and Stark of 

 a rapidly-moving black spot upon the sun's disc on 

 February 12, 1820. Littrow was a constant contributor to 

 the columns of the Astronofnische Nachrichten. The 

 names of Hornstein, Oeltzen, Weiss, Schulhof^ and others 

 are well known in connection with the work of the 

 Vienna Observatory during Littrow's direction. His death 

 occurred on the i6th inst. 



Von Littrow's wife, Auguste Littrow-Bischoff, is one of 

 the best known Austrian authoresses of the present time. 

 The genial qualities of the astronomer and his wife made 



