JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. I4!I 
ABERDEEN OBSERVATORY, HAMILTON. 
BY G. PARRY JENKINS, 
To those members of ours and friends who have not yet availed 
themselves of the invitation so kindly extended by the President to 
visit his Observatory, with the object of secing for themselves the 
various instruments in use, and, if the clouds permitted, of a peep 
at the stars through a good telescope, it has been felt by the officials 
that some account of the Observatory, and the nature of the work 
carried on therein, would be of interest and profit. The task of 
supplying a short narrative for insertion in dur Annual Proceedings 
has fallen to my lot, and having spent many a pleasant evening 
under the revolving roof of Dr. Marsh’s Observatory while the 
building was in construction and afterwards, space alone forbids a 
more extended account of the instruments and their doings. 
In erecting the Observatory due regard was taken of a suitable 
location, with the absence of any impediment to a commanding 
view of the heavens, and this is well provided for on the outskirts of 
our city in Aberdeen avenue, from which the Observatory appropri- 
ately derives its name. 
The building itself is a modification of the Berthon model, so 
well known to readers of the English Mechanic and the Intellectual 
Observer, and from which so many private observatories to house 
telescopes up to 66 inches aperture have been made. It is con- 
structed of wood, and is circular in form, with a dome which is 
easily operated so as to allow access through a shutter to any part of 
the sky at the will of the observer. 
Much ingenuity and mechanical ability has been bestowed upon 
its construction, all of which is practically the handiwork of its 
owner. As the performance of the best glass is easily marred by 
the slightest tremor of an insecure foundation—because the telescope 
magnifies all imperfections in proportion to the powers it bears—the 
greatest pains has been taken to have the groundwork of thick con- 
crete, so that the iron pillar which carries the instrument rests on a 
solid base. ‘The result of this, combined with the optical qualities 
