176 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OE SCIENCE. 
its hour-hand performing a complete revolution through the twenty four sidereal 
hours between the departure of any meridian from a star and its next return 
to it. At the moment a star whose right ascension is oh. cm. os , is on the 
meridian of Kansas City, the sidereal clock ought to show oh. cm. os., and 
at the succeeding return of the star, or the equinox to our meridian, the 
clock ought to indicate the same time again. I have a sidereal clock at No. 
1416 Holmes Street, set and regulated by stellar observation made every clear 
night, with a forty-eight inch transit of two and three-fourth inch aperture. 
This instrument is powerful enough to take the passage of a star invisible to 
the naked eye. Time taken from ten or more stars all agree to the fourth 
part of a second. This proves the time to be that near correct. This time I 
reduce to local, or ''city" time, using the tables of the American Ephemeris or 
Nautical Almanac, which gives the sidereal time at mean noon to the hundredth 
part of a second. A clock set by this time will be kept at the above number, also 
at No. 16 east 7th Street, and corrections in seconds as near as can be made by 
a pocket chronometer. This time-taking is mainly for the benefit of the public. 
Among the lead ng jewelers of the city there is a difference of five to ten 
minutes. This renders it impossible to make prompt appointments, or even to 
regulate a good time-piece. 
This irregularity in "city time" should cease. With a view to this end I 
have spared no pains to find the truth. The meridian adopted is Main Street, 
at the intersection of 7th, the difference caused by longitude from the eastern to 
the western limits of the city is ten seconds. 
SUN AND PLANETS FOR JULY, 1883. 
W. DAWSON, SPICELAND, IND. 
The Sun's R. A. for July 'ist is 6h. 41m. Increasing about four minutes 
every day, it is 8h. 42m. July 31st. Its north declination during the monlh 
changes from 23° 7' on the ist to 18° 15' on the 31st. It may be remarked that 
the R. A of Sirius, the brightest of the fixed stars, is 6h. 40m., and its declina- 
tion 16° 33' S. So that on July ist this star souths one minute before noonj and 
39° 40' south of the Sun. A transit instrument of low power is sufficient to 
observe it. The transit is a valuable and exceedingly interesting piece of appar- 
atus. An amateur of moderate mechanical ingenuity may construct one for 
himself with a few dollars expense. 
The Moon occults Saturn on the ist, about 5 P. M., and Mercury about 
twenty-four hours afterward ; but both phenomena will be difficult to observe — 
being in day-time and near the horizon. The Moon will again pass very near 
Saturn on the 29th, about 4 o'clock in the morning. They will be in the east 
near three hours high, and may be observed with a small glass. The planets are 
all morning stars most of the month, except Uranus. It is slowly approaching 
the star Beta in Virgo, and will come up with it in October. 
