for the year 1871. xli 



ments, will not be found barren of results. Our Observatory- 

 has been fully occupied witli its usual work in astronomy, 

 meteorology, terrestrial magnetism, and other physical inves- 

 tigation. • The great telescope, having passed through its 

 ordeal of criticism, is now quietly doing the work for which it 

 was intended ; how well it does it will best be estimated by 

 those veterans in astronomical research who have com- 

 menced the work now being continued with this instrument. 

 One of these capable judges — I may say the chief one — has, 

 I regret to say, passed away but lately — one whose early 

 labours form the groundwork and reference of what is now 

 being done in nebular astronomy at our Observatory — ■! 

 refer to the celebrated Sir John Herschel, who died 11th 

 May, 1 871, at the good old age of 79. He was a member of 

 the Committee of the Royal Society of London to whom the 

 whole question of the construction of our great telescope 

 was entrusted, and, having been the first to thoroughly 

 scrutinise and depict some of the large Southern nebulse, he 

 had watched with great interest for the results of its 

 revelations concerning them. He lived to see the first 

 instalments only, but still sufficient, I hope, to assure him 

 that this grand instrument, retracing the paths of his 

 research in the skies, would faithfully record the present 

 form and condition of these the objects of his labour at the 

 Cape of Good Hope. 



The most prominent result of the work with the telescope 

 is the cei-tainty that some of the large nebulae, especially of 

 Argus, are undergoing very marked and rapid changes. No 

 photogi'aphy has yet been done with it, as the necessary 

 apparatus arrived but lately, and the requisite arrangements 

 about the building have yet to be made. It is expected that 

 these, however, will be completed before the summer 

 commences, when a regular campaign of lunar photography 

 will be opened. 



