124 



SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



is said to commence on September 23rd at 6 p.m., 

 when the Sun enters the sign Libra. 



Mercury, Venus, and Mars are evening stars 

 all the month, but too close to the Sun for observa- 

 tion. 



Jupiter and Saturn are also evening stars, 

 and must be looked for as soon as it is dark enough 

 in the low south-western sky. 



Uranus is an evening star too near the Sun for 

 observation. 



Neptune, not far from •r\ Geminorum, rises 

 before half-past nine at night at the end of the 

 month. 



Pallas is in opposition on September 8th, 

 appearing as a star of 8'75 magnitude. 



Aug. 31 



Sept. 11 



„ 23 



Souths, 

 h.m. 



0.24-7 a.m. 

 11.28-5 p.m. 

 10.32-8 p.m. 



R.A. 



h.m.s. 



22.-57.53 



22.49.37 



22.41. 4 



2.55.51 N. 

 0.34.48 N. 

 2. 4.58 S. 



The path is from a point close to ^ Piscium, 4-6 

 magnitude, R.A. 22 h. 58 m. 51 s., Dec. N. 3° 17' 12", 

 towards the south-west. 



Lunar Photograph. — About the finest photo- 

 graph ever obtained is by the Yerkes 40-inch 

 achromatic, using the full aperture. It is of the 

 crater Theophilus and its surroundings, and was 

 taken through a yellowish-green screen on a 

 " Cromer " isochromatic plate, with an exposure of 

 about half a second. 



Nova 1901 Persei is still readily visible with 

 the telescope. On July 15th and 16th it appeared 

 not much differing from sixth magnitude, and on 

 July 20th and August 9th it was not far from seventh 

 magnitude. Its red colour has gone, and its 

 spectrum either with prism or diffraction grating- 

 explains the reason. The red C line, formerly so 

 brilliant, has disappeared with the 3-inch Wray. 

 The bluish-green F appears the most brilliant, and 

 three other bright lines are visible on the violet or 

 more refrangible side of F, and there were sus- 

 picions of a very faint line in the orange-yellow. 

 Photographs by Flammarion and Anton iadi are said 

 to show a nebulous aureola with a definite outline. 



Aurora — On July 20th, from 10 to 10.20, the 

 north-north-western sky was very brilliant, with 

 three or four bright rays from that point, one 

 extending so far as a Herculis. 



Comet a 1901 is said to have been first observed 

 on April 12th by M. Viscara at Paysandu in Uru- 

 guay. The prevalence of bad weather prevented 

 a, continuance of observations. We hear that 

 Mr. Maunder was successful in obtaining a photo- 

 graph whilst at Mauritius. There is now no doubt 

 that the objects observed at Yerkes and by Mr. 

 Chambers were not the comet. Another mistake 

 occurred in the Australian telegram describing it 

 as near Aldebaran at a time when it was at least 

 50° distant from that star. 



Dr. Truman Henry Safford, Professor of 

 Astronomy at Williams College, Williamstown, 

 Mass., who was born in 1836 and elected an Asso- 

 ciate of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1866, 

 is dead. 



Professor Ernst August Lamp was born at 

 Kiel, April 4th, 1850. He held an appointment in 

 the Geodetical Institute at Berlin, but afterwards 

 removed to Kiel Observatory in 1877, where he 

 remained for twenty years, and in 1889 became 



Extraordinary Professor. He assisted Professor 

 Kriiger whiLst there in editing the " Astronomische- 

 Nachrichten." In 1900 he went to Africa on the 

 settlement of the boundary between the Congo- 

 State and German East Africa, and there died at. 

 Ruanda on May 10th, 1901. 



Professor Adolf Christian Wilhelm Schur,. 

 born at Altona, April 15th, 1846, was educated at 

 the Kiel University. His first astronomical work 

 was at Berlin assisting Professor Auwers in re- 

 reducing Bradley's observations. Tn 1873 he was 

 asked by Professor Winnecke to become an assistant 

 at the newly organised observatory at Strasburg.. 

 The following year he accompanied Seeliger's ex- 

 pedition to the Auckland Islands to observe the 

 transit of Venus. When Winnecke's health failed, 

 the greater part of the responsibility of the Stras- 

 bui-g work fell upon him until 1886, when he was 

 chosen to succeed Professor Klinkerf ues as Director- 

 of the Royal Observatory, Gottingen. His chief 

 attention has been given to zone observations of 

 stars and the calculations of stellar parallax and, 

 cometary orbits. He was elected an Associate of 

 the Royal Astronomical Society in 1898. He died 

 on July 1st last. 



A New Variable Star has been discovered 

 in Ophiuchus by Dr. Anderson of Edinbui-gh. On 

 October 29th last its magnitude was 9-6, but by 

 November 9th had risen nearly half a magnitude.. 

 Its period has not yet been determined. 



Longitude of Paris. — The observations for the 

 determination of the difference of longitude be- 

 tween Greenwich and Paris will probably not be 

 commenced until the spring, instead of in October, 

 as announced in the report of the Astronomei- 

 Royal. 



The Cluster 13 Messier in Hercules, photo- 

 graphed on a plate exposed for two hours, is found 

 by Mr. H. K. Palmer to contain 5,482 stars. One- 

 thousand and sixteen of the stars are described as 

 bright, and the rest as faint. No nebulosity is. 

 present. 



The Ring Nebula in Lyra, photographed 

 by aid of the 3-foot Crossley silver on glass re- 

 flector at Lick observatory, is found to be oval in 

 shape, not elliptical, being slightly more pointed 

 towards the north-east. The ring appears to be 

 made up of a number of rings interlacing- one 

 another. There are also fringes on either side of 

 the ring, as well as a faint light within. A remark- 

 able fact is that the ring appears larger in the- 

 photograph than when measured with the eye. 

 This is supposed to be owing to the gi'eat actinia 

 power of the blue light given out by hydrogen gas,, 

 which is largely present in the nebula. 



Encke's Comet, h 1901, is reported, by tele- 

 gram from Harvard University, to have been ob- 

 served by Professor Wilson, on the morning of 

 August 6th, in the north-eastern part of the con- 

 stellation Orion. It has since travelled through 

 Gemini and Cancer. 



Astronomical Society of Wales. ^This Society 

 has sent the last number of its organ, " The Cam- 

 brian Natural Observer," which contains much 

 astronomical matter, and a fine plate of the planet 

 Saturn, from a drawing by Mr. Scriven Bolton.. 

 There is likewise a portrait of the late Principal 

 V. Jones, F.R.S., of University College of South 

 Wales ; also a picture of the Telescope House, iia 

 which Colonel Markwick makes his observations. 



