6l2 



NATURE 



[October 15, 1908 



useful arts, prepared by Mr. Basil Anderton, the public 

 librarian, and published by the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Public 

 Libraries Committee. We have now received a copy of 

 the new catalogue, edited by Mr. Anderton, of the New- 

 castle-upon-Tyne Central Lending Library, which includes 

 all books in circulation except English fiction, children's 

 books, and books for the blind. The volume consists of 

 712 pages of large size, and is, in the main, an author 

 catalogue arranged in the alphabetical order of authors' 

 names and writings. A noticeable feature is the introduc- 

 tion, under an author's works, of particulars of books by 

 other writers containing scientific, philosophical, or other 

 criticisms of them. It is satisfactory to find that scientific 

 works occupy a prominent place in the library. The 

 readers of Newcastle-upon-Tyne may be congratulated on 

 the possession of a complete and well-arranged guide to 

 the large number of books at their disposal. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



A New Saturnian Ring. — A telegram received at the 

 Kiel Centralstelle on October S announces that a new, 

 dusky ring surrounding the bright rings of Saturn has 

 been discovered at the Geneva Observatory (Kiel Circular, 

 No. 104). 



Comet Morehouse, lyoSc. — Numerous observations of 

 Morehouse's comet, 1908c, are recorded in No. 4275 of the 

 Astronomische Nachrichten (p. 46, October 5). 



Some suggestion pf change, which may be due to 

 observing conditions, appears in the observations of Prof. 

 E. Millosevich and Dr. Zappa at Rome between September 

 12 and 17. On the former date the brightness of the comet 

 appeared to be less than at a previous observation, made 

 on September 4. and a tail was suspected extending a little 

 to the west of south. On September 14 the coma showed 

 a nucleus of magnitude 105, and the tail extended to a 

 distance of 11' in position-angle 217°. Both coma and tail 

 exhibited an increase of splendour on September 15, the 

 latter extending for some 14' to 15'. On September 16 the 

 coma and nucleus were again brighter, but the tail, in 

 position-angle 228°, was not so well seen ; with a clear, 

 moonless sky on the following day this note was confirmed, 

 and the tail was seen to be curved with its convex side 

 towards the east, the position-angle of the tangent at the 

 commencement of the tail being 204°. 



At the Moscow Observatory, on September 17, M. P. 

 Sternberg found the comet's head to be about 45" in 

 diameter, and to contain a condensation which exhibited a 

 granular structure. A photograph obtained by Dr. Kostin- 

 sky, on September 19, with the 13-inch astrographic tele- 

 scope, exposure 44m., showed a short fan-like tail extending 

 towards the south ; the magnitude of the whole comet was 

 estimated as 80. 



In the Comptcs rendiis for October 5 M. Bigourdan re- 

 ports striking changes in the comet's tail. On Sep- 

 tember 29 it was regular and 20' in length, but on the 

 succeeding night it was irregularly fainter, showing bright 

 patches. At loh. 24m. on October i, however, no tail was 

 to be seen, although it was detected again, some 4' or 5' 

 in length, on October 3. .'MI the observations were made 

 with the same instrument. 



A new set of elements, by Prof. Kobold, appears in the 

 Astronomische Nachrichten, and Prof. Dale has also com- 

 puted new elements and an ephemeris, which is given 

 below : — ■ 



Ephemeris, for Greenwich Midnight. 



Observations made at South Kensington on October 10 

 showed that Prof. Dale's positions are very nearly correct. 



Photometric Observations of Variable Stars. — In No. 

 4275 of the Astronomische Nachrichten (p. 33), Herr .\. 

 Tass places on record the results of a number of photo- 

 metric observations of variable stars. The observations 

 were made at the O'Gyalla Observatory during the years 

 1905, 1906, and 1907. 



-^ .A Bolide with a Persistent Trail. — .\ number of draw- 

 ings and a description of the trail of a bolide, observed bv 

 M. Quenisset, at Juvisy, on July 31, appear in the October 

 number of the Bulletin dc la Socii'te astronomiqtic de 

 France. The bolide itself appeared at iih. 12m., and was 

 sutiicientlv bright to illuminate the surrounding scenery for 

 about half a second, as though the moon were shining. 

 The trail left by the bolide was visible in a binocular 

 twenty minutes after the apparition, and could be seen 

 with the naked eye for half that time, .^t first a straight 

 line, the trail afterwards curved up at both ends until 

 finally it became an elliptical nebulous cloud, very like d 

 telescopic comet. During these transformations the whole 

 cloud was displaced, gradually but regularly, in a W.N.W. 

 to E.S.E. direction. When the first drawing was made, 

 the trail was situated about 1° north of, and parallel to, 

 the line joining a and ;3 .Aquarii, the coordinates of its 

 commencement and end being, approximately, 335°, -f- 3°, and 

 320°, — js", respectively. 



R.iDiAL Velocity of Algol. — From measurements of the 

 spectrograms taken at the Pulkowa Observatory during 

 1905-7, Prof. Belopolsky has derived a set of elements 

 for the orbit of .Algol, and publishes it, together with 

 a detailed account of the reduction, in No. 22, vol. xi. 

 (190SJ, of the Mitteilungen der Nikolai-Hanptsternwarte zu 

 Pulkowo. Each of the lines H5, H7, A4472 (He), A4481 

 (Mg) and H^ is discussed separately, and the following 

 elements result from the complete discussion : — 



log A 



Bright- 

 ness 



0-0107 •.. 5-4 



, 0-0I2I ... 5-5 

 , O-OI5I 



0-0194 



0-0255 

 , 0-0332 

 , 0-0412 



57 

 57 

 5S 

 5-8 

 5-8 

 c-0495 ... 5-7 



co=42°-5 ±i°-35 



£• =0-0476 + 0-0037 



T =2-509 ±0-00019 days 



= 1,693,523 + 100 km. 

 = 90° 



The Effect of Star-Colours upon the Constant of 

 .Astrono.mical Refr.^ctions. — To determine the effect of the 

 colour of the star observed upon the constant of refraction, 

 Mr. Hirayama, of the Tokio Observatory, reduced the 

 observations of Courvoisier, Bauschinger, and Nyr^n by 

 dividing their stars into three groups, according to colour, 

 and then deriving the corrections to the assumed value of 

 the constant corresponding to the different colours. The 

 results of the discussion are published by the Tokio Mathe- 

 matical Society, as a reprint from No. 17, vol. iv. (second 

 series), of the TokyS Siigaku-Buturigahkwai Kizi, and show 

 (i) that the effect of the colour of the star upon the 

 constant of refraction is not shown in any single series, 

 (2) the arithmetical mean of the three series to be 6o".i9 

 for whitish-yellow stars, 6o".i6 for yellow stars, and 

 60". 12 for reddish-yellow stars. 



Halley's Comet. — Prof. Turner's discourse on Halley s 

 comet, given at the recent British Association meeting, 

 has been published by the Clarendon Press at the price 

 of IS. net. After some general, personal, and historical 

 notes. Prof. Turner describes the several circumstances 

 which led to Halley's sagacious conclusion respecting the 

 periodicity of comets, and then proceeds to describe briefiy 

 the conditions under which the coming reappearance of 

 Halley's comet will probably take place. According to the 

 ephemeris prepared by Messrs. Cowell and Crommelin, the 

 comet should enter Pisces, from Aries, in January, 1910, 

 travel westwards towards y Piscium until the beginning of 

 May, and then, turning eastwards again, travel back 

 through the constellations Cetus, Orion, Monoceros, 

 Hydra, and Sextans. From this it will be seen that 

 observers in the southern hemisphere will be better situated 

 for seeing the comet, and, as Prof. Turner points out, it 

 is just possible that it will be well seen in Tasmania during 

 the total solar eclipse of May 8, 1910. The computed 

 brightness varies from 10 on January 2 to 58 on May 2, 

 to 1 1 120 on May 10, and afterwards decreases to 8-6 on 

 May 30, 19 10. 



