804 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 409. 



to 10-4) they treated the subject still more 

 fully. 



lu order that the board of trustees might 

 be enabled to arrive at appropriate conclu- 

 sions, Professor Lewis Boss, chairman; 

 Professor George B. Hale and Professor 

 W. W. Campbell were requested to investi- 

 gate, as a committee, the subject more fully 

 and to consider the question of suitable 

 sites for such observatories. 



The result of the work of this committee 

 is submitted in the 'Year Book.' 



W. W. Campbell, Lick Observatory, Mt. 

 Hamilton, Cal. Foi- pay of assistants to 

 take part in researches at the Lick Ob- 

 servatory. $4,000. 



Abstract of Eeport. — Ovfing to the diffi- 

 culty of obtaining satisfactory assistants 

 from the east and providing living quarters 

 for them on the mountain, it was not found 

 possible to provide for an effective use of 

 the grant for the employment of assistants 

 and computers until late in the year. In- 

 vestigations were begun with the meridian 

 circle work and in spectroscoi^y. With the 

 construction of additional residence quar- 

 ters on the mountain, Professor Campbell 

 will soon employ the full number of as- 

 sistants rendered possible by the grant. 



Herman S. Davis, Gaithersburg, Md. For> 

 a neiu reduction of Piazzi's star observa- 

 tions. $500. 



American and European astronomers 

 have urged that a fresh reduction of these 

 observations by known methods for obviat- 

 ing certain errors should be made. Pro- 

 fessor Porro, of Turin, undertook a part of 

 the reductions and Professor Davis the 

 rest. Assistance from private persons and 

 from observatories has contributed to the 

 prosecution of this undertaking. The Car- 

 negie Institution was asked to make a small 

 contribution. 



Abstract of Report. — The work accom- 

 plished under this grant has been in con- 



nection with -work that was already begun. 

 This makes it difficult to define specifically 

 the exact amount done under the grant 

 from the Carnegie Institution. The period 

 of nine months, during which the grant 

 has been available, has marked the trans- 

 ition from the routine work of reducing the 

 observed 'apparent' positions of the stars 

 to a common 'mean' epoch to the next 

 large step of deducing therefrom the in- 

 strumental errors and compiling the final 

 catalogue. This rendered it necessary to 

 spend this time in rounding out and per- 

 fecting all the divers portions of the com- 

 putations which have been going on un- 

 interruptedly for the past seven years. 

 This has been finished, and also some pre- 

 liminary work done for the next great and 

 distinct stage of the work: (a) To deduce 

 the errors of the telescope for each night 

 of observation; (6) to correct all observa- 

 tions for these maladjustments, and (c) 

 finally, to combine the definite separate 

 positions into means for each star included 

 in the catalogue, which is the goal of the 

 long labor. 



George E. Hale, Yerkes Observatory, Wil- 

 liams Bay, AVis. For measurements of 

 stellar parallaxes, solar photographs, etc. 

 $4,000. 



Abstract of Report. — Work was begun 

 en the photographic investigation of stellar 

 parallaxes early in May with a forty-inch 

 telescope. Up to October, 114 plates, con- 

 taining about 350 exposures, had been ob- 

 tained. These included: (a) Twenty ex- 

 perimental plates, (&) eighty-eight plates 

 suitable for parallax determinations, and 

 (c) six plates of loose star clusters. 



Considerable work was also done in the 

 measurement of photographs of star 

 clusters. 



Another line of investigation was the 

 photometric determination of stellar magni- 

 tudes. Considerable progress was made in 

 this, fields being measured with the six- 



