400 



NATURE 



[Feb. 23, I 



The Norwegian Fi-hery Promotion Society of Bergen has 

 petitioned the Government for a grant of ;^i5,oco for the 

 development of the deep-sea fisheries of Norway. 



The Merchant Taylors Company have recently voted ten 

 guineas to the Parkes Museum to aid in its work of practical 

 teaching and demonstrating sanitary science. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Bonnet Monkey {Macacus siniciis $ ), two 

 Rhesus Monkeys (Macaaes rhesus ? ? ) from India, an Alpine 

 Marmot {^Arctomys marmotta Q ), European, a Vulpine Phalan- 

 ger i^Phalangista vulpina cJ ) from Australia, presented by Mr. 

 H. Austin Clow, F.Z. S. ; three Esquimaux Dogs {Canis 

 familiaris) from Greenland, presented by Mr. W. T. Tournay, 

 F.Z.S. ; three Derbian Wallabys {Halmahirus derbianus) from 

 Australia, presented by Lieut. C. M. Ilepworth, R.N, R. ; four 

 Alpine Accentors {Accentor alpinus), European, presented by the 

 Lord Lilford, F.Z.S. ; a Cardinal Grosbeak (Cardinalis virgini- 

 anus) from North America, presented by Mr. Ayerst ; four Lion 

 Marmosets {Midas rosalia), an Eyra {Felis eyra) from Brazil, 

 four Parrot Finches {Erythrura psittacea) from New Caledonia, 

 two Common Gulls {Lams caniis), a Black-headed Gull {Larus 

 ridibundus), British, purchased ; four Cereopsis Geese {Cereopsis 

 novce-hoUandicE) bred in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Mr. Tebbutt's Observatory, Windsor, New South 

 Wales. — Mr. John Tebbutt, the well-known and enthusiastic 

 amateur astronomer of New South Wales, has just published a 

 little pamphlet giving a history and description of his private 

 observatory, the work of which, he remarks with justifiable pride, 

 " has proved of sufficient importance to admit of Windsor being 

 placed in the list of observatories in the British and American 

 Nautical Almanacs, the Connaissance des Temps, and the 

 Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbtich." And this distinction has 

 been well earned, for the lists here given of observations 

 made, and of papers contributed to various scientific publi- 

 cations, show the history of the little observatory to have 

 been a most honourable one. Mr. Tebbutt has made all the 

 observations himself, and until i88l performed all the reduc- 

 tions ; latterly he has received occasional assistance in the 

 computations from his son or friends near. His instrumental 

 equipment was for many years of the most modest description : 

 for seven years it consisted principally of a sextant, and a 

 telescope of if inches aperture. In 1861 a refractor of 3^ 

 inches aperture, and in 1864 a transit instrument of 2 inches, 

 were added. In 1872, Mr. Tebbutt became the possessor of an 

 equatorial of 43 inches, which was his chief instrument until 

 about a year and a half ago, when he bought a fine 8-inch 

 equatorial by Grubb, once the properly of the late Dr. Bone, of 

 Castlemaine. The observations made have been principally of 

 comets, for a number of which Mr. Tebbutt has also computed 

 orbits, but daily meteorological observations have been kept up 

 for twenty-five years, the results of which have been published 

 in five parts, and transit observations have been taken regularly 

 for time. Mr. Tebbutt has also done good service to science by 

 his papers on astronomical subjects in various organs of the 

 colonial press, for hitherto the private pursuit of astronomy 

 has been greatly neglected in the Australian colonies, and he 

 has almost stood alone as an amateur observer. It is to 

 be hoped that this record of his labours and his success may call 

 forth many imitators. 



PULKOWA Observatory. — The Report of this Observatory 

 for the year ending May 31, 1887, refers to the heavy loss the 

 institution sustained in the death of Dr. August Wagner. Owing 

 to his death, the work of publication has been somewhat de- 

 layed ; he had, indeed, finished a memoir on personal and 

 instrumental errors for the introduction of vol. xii., but the 

 materials he left for the stellar and planetary catalogues were 

 not so readily dealt with. Still, it is expected that this volume, 

 and the introduction to vol. xiv., may soon be ready for publi- 

 cation ; vols. XV. and xvi., which will contain meridian observa- 

 tions for the period 1872-80, and the catalogue, are ready to fol- 



low vol. xiv. through the press. Of vol. viii., the catalogue, form- 

 ing the first part — meridian observations 1840-69 of Bradley and 

 other stars down to mag. 6 — has already been distributed, and the 

 remainder is in hand ; vol. x., Prof. Struve's double-star obser- 

 vations, is still incomplete. The observational work of the 

 Observatory has suffered no great change. The 30-inch refractor 

 has been used by Dr. H. Struve for the measurement of the 

 more difficult of Burnham's stars, the fainter satellites of Saturn, 

 and the satellite of Neptune. The old 15-inch has been used 

 by Drs. H. Struve and Hasselberg for photographic experiments, 

 and by Prof. O. Struve for observations of Procyon, which has 

 now been followed through nearly a complete period of its 

 orbital motion. 



WoLSiNGHAM OBSERVATORY. — The Rev. T. E. Espin re- 

 ports that during the last year he has continued his sweeping 

 for red stars and stars with remarkable spectra, and that he has 

 published spectra of 126 objects in the Astronomische Nach- 

 richten, Nos, 2788 and 2825, of which eighty-six were found in 

 the sweeps. Fifteen of the stars were of Secchi's type IV. 

 Three new variables of long period have been discovered, and 

 the usual observations of variables have been made and for- 

 warded to Prof. E. C. Pickering. The Observatory has been 

 enriched by the present from Canon Slatter of a fine 4"8-inch 

 equatorial by Troughton and Simms. The new edition of 

 Birmingham's Red Star Catalogue will be ready for the printer 

 in a few weeks. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR THE 

 WEEK 1888 FEBRUARY 26— MARCH 3. 



/I7OR the reckoning of time the civil day, commencing at 

 ^ Greenwich mean midnight, counting the hours on to 24, 



is here employed.) 



At Greenwich on February 26 

 San rises, 6h. S4m. ; souths, I2h. 13m. lo'os. ; sets, I7h. 32m. : 



right asc. on meridian, 22h. 36"3m. ; decl. 8° 48' S. 



Sidereal Time at Sunset, 3h. 56m. 

 Moon (Full, February 27, I2h.) rises, i6h. 22m. ; souths, 



23h. 50m.; sets, 7h. 4m.*: right asc. on meridian, 



M signifies maximum ; tit minimum. 



