NOTES. 



ASTRONOMY. 



By G. F. Chambers, F.K.A.S. 



THE GERM.4N ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 



(continued). — At the second day's sitting of the meeting 

 J. Peters explained the instrument with which the eight-figures 

 Logarithmic Tables, recently published, were formed ; in 

 this discussion Brnns, .A. Galle, and Boegehold took part. 



Grossmann spoke upon the 

 systematic determination of 

 stellar parallaxes, and said 

 that one of the pressing needs 

 in Stellar Astronomy was the 

 determination of a large 

 quantity of parallaxes ; he 

 thought that it should be 

 accomplished by the aid 

 of the Ast roHoni ische 

 Gcsellschaft. He considered 

 the method most suitable for 

 this to be by means of right 

 ascension differences, using 

 the Repsold self-registering 

 micrometer ; he referred to 

 the advantages and disadvan- 

 tages of this method and to 

 some results. Ambronn ex- 

 pressed his experience on the 

 Giittingen method of photo- 

 graphic transits ; Battermann. 

 Charlier, and F. Cohn joined 

 in the discussion, and a 

 committee was appointed to 

 consider this question and to 

 report to the next meeting in 

 1912 or 1913; the committee, 

 or commission, consists of 

 Battermann, Charlier. F. 

 Cohn, Grossman, and Schorr. 



Charlier gave a resume of 

 his researches in the domains 

 of mathematical statistics : 

 in the discussion several 

 members took part. 



There was a communication 

 from Weiss upon his earl\- 

 conclusion of the new edition 

 of Argelander's North Zone 

 Catalogue, which Batter- 

 mann urged was of great 

 value; and finally an explana- /r, , ,i / ; • - ./ : 

 tion of some pages, by Weiss, Felipe 



of a particular re-formation 



of Kepler's Equation for the research of the true anomalv in 

 very eccentric orbits by means of Barker's tables. 



The third and last sitting was held on Friday. September 

 16th. After certain preliminaries. Brendel opened a 

 discussion relating to the measures, work, and progress con- 

 cerning minor planets. The method of special perturbations 

 only serves as a makeshift, and after a considerable discussion 

 a commission consisting of Brendel. Charlier. F. Cohn. Kobold 

 and Witt was appointed to study the questions raised. 



Schulz, in communicating a number of graphical exhibitions, 

 gave his views upon the physics of the Sun. 



At the afternoon sitting Strbmgren gave a general re\ie\v 

 upon comet cosmogony of the last ten years, specially referring 

 to some of his own uork and to that of Fayet and Fabry. 



A. Galle then drew attention to the determination of positions 

 in the vicinity of the Poles. There the length of a degree of 

 parallel in S9° latitude amounts to nine furlongs. (FQ'""), in 



89° 55' only 177 yards (162""), and at 5" from the pole it is only 

 118 inches (3'"). It appears impossible to observe the direction 

 of the meridian, or to keep to that direction in a journey from 

 83° to the pole. Under the most favourable conditions one 

 must at last be satisfied with an error of six miles and one 

 furlong (10*'™!. But at a distance of only 5' from the pole an 

 error of 30° in the time corresponds to a maximum error of 

 1''3 in the altitude; altitude measures in the vicinity of the 

 pole are quite unfit for time determinations ; one should direct 



one's attention to lunar 

 distances. 



Battermann moved the 

 general employment of Green- 

 wich time in ephemerides, 

 and was supported by others. 

 Miiller gave a summarj' of 

 his expedition to Teneriffe in 

 I connection with the researches 

 upon Halley's comet. 



This concluded the business 

 portion of the meeting. The 

 15th of September was given 

 up to social enjoyment, by 

 the invitation of His Serene 

 Highness the Prince of Pless, 

 at Freiburg, where an inspec- 

 I tion of a watch factory was 

 I made, and then over the 

 mountains to Bad Salzbrunn. 

 Fifty-four members attended 

 this biennial meeting, which 

 was very varied and interest- 

 ing in the topics discussed, 

 and must tend to make those 

 who were present understand 

 better the astronomical prob- 

 lems, and each other. t- 

 F. 



FELIPE VALLE, whose 

 death took place on September 

 1st, at an early age for 

 astronomers, was in 1880 the 

 first assistant Observer and 

 Computer in the Mexican 

 : Observatory at Chapultepec. 

 .After then he became the pro- 

 fessor of physical astronomy 

 and of celestial mechanics at 

 the Engineer's School ; the 

 professor of sphtrical astron- 

 omy, of general topography, 

 ij' RiHtliiiser. and of applied mathematics at 

 the Military School ; and, at 

 last, the Director of the newly- 

 formed National Observatory at Tacubaya, in 1897. In 1907, 

 \'alle had at the Observatory a sub-director (V. Gama), three 

 astronomers, seven assistants, a secretary, and about twelve 

 others. 



This Obser\atory was at first established at Chapultepec. in 

 1878, and was placed under the direction of Angel Anguiano ; 

 in 1883 it was transferred to Tacubaya, at a height of seven 

 thousand and thirty feet, where work in the four distinct 

 branches of astronomy, meteorology, magnetism and seismology 

 is carried on. The contributions to astronomical publications 

 made by Valle were not numerous ; they consist mainly of 

 observations upon comets and planets, and are to be found in 

 the Asfronoiiiisclie Nachrichtcii. in volumes 123 to 139 

 (1889-18951. 



Both in Anguiano's time and throughout Valle's directorate 

 a volume of several hundred pages, called the Aittiario, was 

 regularly published ; the preparation of the manuscript was 



Valle 



479 



