STONYHURST COLLEGE OBSERVATORY. 



By FRANK C. DENNETT. 



The Annual Report of this institution for 1914 has just 

 been issued by its able Director, the Rev. Walter 

 Sidgreaves, S. J., F.R.A.S. The year has proved remarkably 

 mild and cloudy. The mean barometric pressure was 0-041 

 inch below the average, and the mean temperature l°-5 

 above the average. The rainfall proved to be 3-113 inches 

 in excess of the mean quantity. Only one " record " 

 seems to have occurred : January 8th had the heaviest fall 

 of rain — 2-074 inches — for a January day that has occurred 



Figure 98. 



Magnetic Mean Declination Range. Mean Daily 

 Spot Area. 



during the previous sixty-seven years. May was the only 

 month with a mean temperature below the average, and 

 cloudiness is shown by the fact that the total hours of sun- 

 shine registered are three hundred and twenty-eight less 

 than the average of the past thirty-four years. September 

 gave a record of thirty sunny days, with 176-5 bright hours. 

 The wind record is below the annual average to the extent 

 of two thousand three hundred and eighty-six miles. The 

 strongest gale reached only forty-four miles in the hour 

 on February 22nd. The rainfall of the year shows an excess 

 of three inches above the usual record. January. March, 

 May, July, September, November, and December each 

 yielded a rainfall above the average, especially the last two, 

 which together had a rainfall of 14-46 inches, or 5-392 

 inches in excess of the mean. In August and October 



little over half the usual amount fell. Magnetic records 

 appear to be missing on five days — January 5th to 8th and 

 June 29th. Of the remainder, one hundred and twenty-two 

 are marked as calm, two hundred and ten as small, and 

 twenty-five as moderate ; three days only are marked as 

 greater, April 5th and 6th — when the fine sun-spot group 

 No. 5 was crossing the central meridian — and September 

 27th ; but no very great disturbances occurred. The 

 magnetic conditions during the year have been remarkably 

 quiet. Solar observations were made on two hundred and 

 seventeen days, and drawings made on one hundred and 

 thirty-three : only nineteen of these showed faculae, and 

 one hundred and fourteen spots and faculae. The mean 

 disc area of spots (in units of one five-thousandth of the 

 visible surface) appears at 0-82, and the mean daily range 

 of the magnetic declination (in minutes of arc) at 10 '-2. 

 These are included in the diagram constructed by the 

 writer (see Figure 98), showing the variations since 1898, 

 as given in the Stonyhurst reports, and are worth studv. 



The present report is additionally interesting in that it 

 gives a record of the expedition organised by the Joint 

 Permanent Eclipse Committee of the Royal and Royal 

 Astronomical Societies to Hernosand, in Sweden, to observe 

 the total eclipse of the Sun, August 21st, 1914. Originally 

 it was arranged for Professor A. Fowler and Father Cortie, 

 accompanied by Major Hills and Father O'Connor, with 

 Dr. Fowler's assistant, to go to Kiev, in Russia. The Rus- 

 sian Government, however, would not at first grant the 

 necessary permission to the Jesuit Fathers. This objection, 

 however, was withdrawn later at the intervention of Dr. 

 Backlund, the Imperial Astronomer at Pulkova, but by 

 good fortune the news did not reach the party. The out- 

 break of War would have stopped the party at Riga, as, 

 indeed, was the case with Professor Fowler. Had they 

 reached Kiev the clouds would have prevented observations. 

 As it was, they, through the good offices of Professor B. 

 Hasselberg, found a capital site, with exceptional con- 

 veniences, at Hernosand, in a field at the rear of the Technical 

 School. Moreover, on the day of the eclipse they were 

 favoured with fine skies. The equipment was good, and the 

 observations successful. One photograph of the corona, 

 taken with the twenty-foot objective — four inches aperture 

 — is given in the report. A study of the rays in the corona 

 makes it apparent that some of them are due to the great 

 sun-spot (No. 24 in the " Knowledge" List). The corona 

 was generally of the minimum type, the beautiful short 

 radiations around the poles, the arc extending for 75° about 

 the North and 65' about the South Pole. A long " fish-tail " 

 extended away from the western limb, and spreading rays 

 of the " intermediate " type from the eastern. Eight pro- 

 minences appear on the plates, some being fine ones. Like 

 other observers, they found what is usually known as the 

 " characteristic coronal radiation " at wave-length 5303 to 

 be barely traceable on the photographic plates. This appv 

 to be weak at the times of sun-spot minimum, as it was faint 

 in 1900. For more minute details the reader is referred to the 

 report itself, which is well worthy of study. 



REVIEWS. 



BIOGRAPHY. 



Life of Sir John Lubbock {Lord Avebury) I [y HoRACl 

 G. Hutchinson. 2 volumes. 338 and 334 pages. 2 illus- 

 trations in each volume 8J-in. -,5.1-in. 

 (Macmillan & Co. Price 30/- nel | 

 It Mr. Hutchinson is not concerned with apportii 

 to Lord Avebury his precise niche in Fame's temple, tin- 

 volumes be lore us bring home to the reader the (act that 

 the niche, wherever it may be situated, must be a very 

 import. nit one. 



Mr. Hutchinson mentions more than once the comment 

 th.it bankers considered l ord Avebury to be a good scientific 



man. while men i 't science looked upon him .is ,i i;o ( xl banker , 

 and. though we agree that the biography " dispos 

 ever ol that ill-considered criticism, it may lx- well to look 

 Eoj a moment at the reasons which may have led to it. It 

 is not recorded, apparently, who is responsible for the 

 epigram, but we should imagine that it was not made by 

 a banker. 



Scientific men who specialise are prone to the very human 



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