,24 



NATURE 



[February i, 1894 



carefully to take notice whether I could discerne any such 

 difference of one of them from the other foure, that might by the 

 more twinckling light of it or any other appearance give ground 

 to believe that it might be a fixt starr, but I could discerne 

 nothing of that nature : and I consider that the tube with which 

 I looked upon them, though so good as to shew very clearely 

 'he Satellytes, yet was but of 3 foote and halfe with a concave 

 ey-glasse ; and I question whether by a farre better tube a fixt 

 star can be discerned so near the body of that planet when in 

 the ever bright activity of its light, for, if so, why are there not 

 often if not alwayes scene with the best tubes the like or more." 

 The fifth body ob^^erved by Winthrop was probably a small 

 star, but though it cannot definitely be said what the body was, 

 every one will agree that it was not the fifth satellite discovered 

 by Prof Barnard. Even at the present time it is not uncommon 

 for an astronomical tyro to believe he has seen the moons of Mars 

 by means of an opera-glass, being deceived by the appearance of 

 small stars in the vicinity of the planet, and there is httle doubt 

 that Winthrop was misled in a similar manner. 



The U.S. Naval Observatory. — The report of Captain 

 F. V. McNair, superintendent of the U.S. Naval Observatory, 

 for the year ending June 30, 1893, has just been issued. We 

 extract from it a few points of interest. On May 15, 1893, the 

 old Naval Observatory was formally abandoned as an observa- 

 tory, and the new site on Georgetown Heights, Washington, 

 officially occupied. Owing to this change, few observations of 

 the heavenly bodies have been made since the last report. Prof. 

 Eastman has determined the position of the new observatory 

 with reference to the old one. Assuming the adopted latitude 

 and longitude of the old observatory to be correct, the position 

 of the new is lat. 38° 55' i4"-68, and long. 5h. 8m. 1571s. west 

 of Greenwich. Prof. Eastman has been relieved of the charge 

 of the transit circle, and is now chief of the department of fun- 

 damental observations. The new office is one that many 

 astronomers would consider of doubtful advantage, for we learn 

 that the department consists of one computor to assist in com- 

 piling the results of twenty-three years' observations of stars 

 with the transit circle. Prof. Harkness has been chiefly en- 

 gaged in overlooking the remounting of the equatorials and the 

 prime vertical transit instrument. Into the mountings of the 12 

 and 26-inch equatorials he has introduced a pair of dials for in- 

 dicating the right ascension and declination of the point of the 

 heavens to which the telescope is directed. The dials face the 

 observer when his hands are upon the right ascension and de- 

 clination quick motions, they are brightly illuminated, they give 

 the same degree of accuracy as the old-fashioned coarse circles, 

 and as the right-ascension dial is moved by clockwork it shows 

 the apparent right ascension of the telescope, together with its 

 hour angle, and the right ascension of the meridian. Having 

 the right ascension and declination of any visible object, the 

 observer can instantly bring it into the field of the finder by set- 

 ting these coordinates upon the dials. All the movements of 

 the instrument are controlled, and all the readings of the dials, 

 and circles are made, either from the floor of the dome or from 

 the eye end of the main telescope, thus enabling an observer to 

 work alone without the aid of an assistant. For greater con- 

 venience in observing the sun and moon, supplementary gearing 

 has been introduced into the driving clock, by means of which 

 the spet d of the telescope can be instantly changed from sidereal 

 to mean solar or mean lunar. Prof. Harkness' arrangement is 

 extremely ingenious, and should be adopted in all observatories 

 in which ihe aim is to minimise inconveniences. Prof. Frisby 

 reports that, with the assistance of Prof. Brown, the catalogue 

 of 17,000 stars observed by the late Captain Gilliss, at Santiago, 

 has been completed, and is now ready for publication. These 

 facts suffice to show that though the observatory was in an un- 

 settled condition during the year covered by the report, a large 

 amount of good work was accomplished. 



The Satellite of Neptune. — Prof. Struve recently com- 

 municated to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences a discus^ 

 sion of the observations of the satellite of Neptune made with 

 the 30-inch refractor at Pulkova from 1885 to 1893. A com- 

 parison of the four orbits calculated for four different epochs 

 has clearly established the existence of the p'ogressive move- 

 ment of the pole of the orbit suspected by Mr. Marth some 

 years ago. An acceleration of the motion of the satellite has 

 been detected, the cause of which is unknown. The value 

 obtained for the mass of Neptune is 1/19396, the sun's mass 

 being unity. 



NO, 1266, VOL. 49] 



GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



Prof. Marcel Dubois publishes in the last number of the 

 Annales de Geographic an epitome of his address on the 

 inauguration of the Chair of Colonial Geography in the Faciilte 

 des Lettres at Paris. He proposes to treat the subject of colonial 

 geography on widely philosophical lines, and repudiates the 

 suggestion that it is synonymous with the history of French 

 colonisation or the topographical description of French colonies. 

 M. Dubois is one of the leading exponents in France of the 

 modern conception of geography as a science involving the 

 application of the results of many sciences to the central problem 

 of the relation of Man to the earth. 



The new number of Petermamis Mitteihmgen contains the 

 first instalment of a paper by Count Joachim Pfeil on South- 

 west Africa, illustrated by an excellent map of the region bor- 

 dering 20° E., showing the routes of all travellers who have 

 crossed it, and a series of valuable sections from Count Pfeil's 

 own determinations of altitude. The number also contains an 

 account of the Adelsberg Grotto, by Herr Kraus, referring spe- 

 cially to the explorations of MM. Martel and Putick, mentioned 

 in Nature, vol. xlix. p. 256. 



Prince Constantine Wiazemski has completed a very ex- 

 tensive journey through Asia, of which he will soon give an account 

 to the Paris Geographical Society. Leaving St. Petersburg in 

 1892, he travelled to China by Siberia, and continued thence 

 though Tonkin to Annam, Cambodia, Cochin-China, Siam, 

 the Laos country, Burma, Manipur, Kashmir, Tibet, Bokhara, 

 and Persia, arriving at Tiflis in November last. In this great 

 land journey he made extensive scientific collections, which 

 were unfortunately nearly all lost on account of attacks by 

 natives when passing through the Chin country. 



THE LARGE FIREBALL OF JANUARY 2$. 



A LARGE detonating fireball was observed over a large 

 ■^ district at ten o'clock on the evening of Thursday, 

 January 25. Mr. W. F. Denning has sent us the following 

 detailed description of the phenomenon : — 



" A slow-moving fireball of the most brilliant kind was seen 

 at Bristol on January 25, at loh. im. Clouds covered the sky at 

 the time, but the planet Jupiter and a few of the brighter stars 

 were dimly visible. 



" A sudden and vivid illumination of the firmament caused 

 me to look upwards, without, however, seeing anything. A 

 second flash prompted me to turn round, when I immediately 

 saw, in the north-northeast, the expiring splendours of a large 

 double-headed fireball. No stars could be distinguished in the 

 vicinity, but the point of disappearance was afterwards carefully 

 determmed as in azimuth 206° west of south, and altitude 20°. 

 It was slightly descending, and the backward prolongation of 

 its track indicates the radiant as near a Cephei. 



"The fireball appears to have been seen with startling effect 

 at many places in Worcestershire. At Alvechurch, Redditch, a 

 loud report similar to a clap of thunder was heard after the dis- 

 ruption of the meteor, and there was a perceptible oscillation, 

 supposed to be due to a slight shock of earthquake. At Worces- 

 ter, Droitwich, and other places in the locality, windows were 

 violently rattled and houses shaken, so that people rushed out 

 of doors in a terrified state. 

 I "The meteor was well seen at Birmingham, and the deton- 

 I ation followed the explosion in three minutes, according to the 

 ; testimony of two trustworthy observers. 



" From a discussion of the various observations, the disap- 

 pearance of the meteor is well indicated at a height of only sixteen 

 miles above a point of the earth's surface, four miles north of Ash- 

 church, near Tewkesbury. Its direction was from north-north- 

 west to south-south-east, and the earth point at Swindon, thirty- 

 five miles from the place of disappearance. The descriptions 

 are somewhat conflicting as to the early stages of the meteor's 

 flight, but it probably passed over Chester at an elevation of 

 fifty-eight miles. At the time of its disappearance near Ash- 

 church it was forty-seven miles from Bristol, and thirty-six from 

 Birmingham." 



Mr. Lloyd Bozward writes to us as follows : — "At about ten 

 on Thursday night a meteor of enormous size passed over Wor- 

 cester. The night here was densely overcast. For all that, the 

 brilliance was so intense as to dim the light of the street lamps. 

 Even when first manifest the radiance was exceedingly bright^ 



