SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, 



263 



TELEGRAPHIC ANNOUNCEMENTS OF ASTRONOMICAL 

 DISCOVERIES. 



THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION has completed arrangements for the 

 immediate transmission by telegraph between Europe and America of 

 accounts of astronomical discoveries, which, for the purpose of co-opera- 

 tive observation, require immediate announcement. 



Among such discoveries are those of planets and comets, or of bodies 

 which are generally so faint as not to be seen, except through the tele* 

 scope ; and which being in motion their place in the heavens must be 

 made known to the distant .observer before they so far change their 

 position as not to be readily found. For this purpose the ordinary mail 

 conveyance, requiring at least ten days, is too slow, since in that time the 

 body will have so far changed its position as not to be found, except 

 with great difficulty ; and this change will become the greater if the body 

 is a very faint one, for in that case it could only be 'discovered on a night 

 free from moonlight, which of necessity, in ten or twelve days, must be 

 followed by nights on which the sky is illuminated by the moon, and all 

 attempts to discover the object would have to be postponed until the 

 recurrence of a dark night. Indeed, even then the search often proves in 

 vain ; and it is not, in some cases, until after a set of approximate ele- 

 ments are calculated and transmitted, that the astronomers on the two 

 sides of the Atlantic are able fully to co-operate with each other. 



These difficulties were discussed by some of the principal astronomers 

 of Europe, and an application was made to the Smithsonian Institution, 

 through Dr. C. H. F. PETEES, of Hamilton College, New York, to remove 

 them, by transmitting intelligence immediately through the Atlantic Tele- 

 graph Cable. For this purpose the Institution applied to the New York, 

 Newfoundland and London Telegraph and to the Western Union Telegraph 

 Companies to be allowed free transmission of this kind of intelligence, 

 and have received through CYKTJS W. FIELD, Esq., and WM. OETON, Esq., 

 with that liberality which has always attended applications of a similar 

 character by the Institution, the free use of all the lines of these companies 

 for the object in question. 



