ASTKONOMICAL OBSEBVATOKIES. 287 



From the preceding sketch it must be apparent that 

 within a few years, rapid progress has been made 

 toward supplying our country with the means of 

 making astronomical observations. We now have in- 

 struments which permit us to engage in astronomical 

 researches upon a footing of equality with the oldest 

 establishments of Europe, while the number of observers 

 and the taste for astronomical studies has kept pace with 

 the increase of our instruments. The importance of 

 astronomical observations is beginning to be generally 

 appreciated ; but for the benefit of those whose attention 

 has not been particularly turned to this subject, a few 

 suggestions are added. 



An astronomical observatory may be made useful in 

 almost any locality, but it may be rendered especially 

 valuable in the neighborhood of a large commercial em- 

 porium. The following may be enumerated among these 

 advantages : 



I. It furnishes an accurate determination of time, which 

 is a matter of importance to almost every citizen, but 

 more especially to certain classes of the community. 

 Every vessel which puts to sea, carries with it one or 

 more chronometers, and the chronometer is almost ex- 

 clusively relied upon to furnish the longitude of the 

 vessel from day to day. An error of a few seconds in 

 the chronometer causes a corresponding error in the lon- 

 gitude deduced, and such errors have been the occasion 

 of the loss of numerous vessels. It is, therefore, a matter 

 of vital importance that the error and rate of all chro- 



