14 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 210. 



appropriated by Congress to sustain the 

 Observatory. 



The present personnel is as follows : Su- 

 perintendent, Captain C. H. Davis, U. S. N.; 

 Lieutenant A. N. Mayer, U. S. N., in charge 

 of the chronometers and time service, and 

 also general storekeeper and inspector of 

 nautical instruments ; Professor H. M. Paul, 

 U. S. ]N'., in charge of magnetic and mete- 

 orological observations; Computer M. E. 

 Porter ; Instrument - maker William F. 

 Gardner. 



The Astronomical Director is Professor 

 William Harkness, U. S. IST., and imme- 

 diately under him are Professor Edgar 

 Frisby, U. S. N"., in charge of the 12-inch 

 equatorial refractor ; Professor S. J. Brown, 

 U. S. IST., in charge of the 26-inch equatorial 

 refractor ; Professor A. N. Skinner, U. S. IST., 

 in charge of the 9-inch meridian circle ; 

 Assistant Astronomer G. A. Hill, in charge 

 of the prime-vertical transit and the alt- 

 azimuth ; Assistant Astronomers T. I. King 

 and F. B. Littell ; Computers E. A. Boeger, 

 G. K. Lawton, William M. Brown and F. 

 H. Parsons; Photographer George H. Peters. 



The 6-inch transit circle is not yet ready 

 for use. 



The work of the Observatory since its re- 

 moval to the new site, in the beginning of 

 1893, has been as follows : 



In 1888 the management of the Naval 

 Observatory acceded to a request from the 

 German Astronomical Society to determine, 

 in accordance with its general program, 

 the positions of the stars in the zone— 13° 

 50' to —18° 10' of declination. Various 

 difficulties prevented the execution of this 

 work at the old Observatory, but as soon 

 as the 9-inch transit circle was got into 

 working order at the new site the Superin- 

 tendent, Captain F. V. McNair, directed 

 Assistant Astronomer A. IST. Skinner to 

 proceed with the observations, and gave 

 him the assistance of Computers T. I. King 

 and F. B. Littell for that purpose. The 



first zone was observed January 13, 1894, 

 and with the exception of a few scattering 

 stars, the entire work was completed in 

 182 zones, the last of which was observed 

 on May 26, 1897. The program involved 

 the determination of the position of 8,689 

 stars, with at least two observations of each. 

 The number of observations actually made 

 was 19,762, of which 18,062 were zone stars 

 and 1,700 were zero stars. The i-eduction 

 of these observations is about three-fourths 

 completed. In the course of the zone ob- 

 servations Assistant Astronomer Skinner 

 discovered the variability of the following 

 stars : 



X Hydrse, announced in the Astronomical Journal, 

 No. 332. 



W Ceti, announced in the Astronomical Journal, 

 No. 342. 



RT Librae, announced in the Astronomical Journal, 

 No. 353. 



Z Capricorni, announced in the Astronomical Jour- 

 nal, No. 358. 



The meridian observations of the Sun, 

 Moon and planets were necessarily inter- 

 rupted by the removal to the new site. As 

 stated above, these observations were sus- 

 pended June 29, 1891, and it was not found 

 expedient to resume them until after the 

 appointment of the Astronomical Director 

 in September, 1894. During the progress 

 of the observations of the German zone, 

 other meridian observations could not be 

 pushed energetically, and until the zone 

 reductions are completed they will be lim- 

 ited to the Sun, Moon and planets, the 

 necessary ephemeris stars, and a few mis- 

 cellaneous stars. The Sun and major plan- 

 ets are now observed on the meridian every 

 day, except Sundays and holidays, and the 

 Moon is observed at every visible transit. 

 The reductions of these observations are 

 nearly completed to within a few months of 

 date. 



The 12-inch equatorial has been continu- 

 ously employed by Professor Frisby on ob- 

 servations of asteroids, comets, occultations 



