74 Chronicles of Science. [Jan., 



By far the most gigantic work that has appeared for many years 

 has just been published, as the first part of the 154th volume of the 

 ' Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society ;' this is the cata- 

 logue of Nebuke and Clusters of Stars by Sir John W. Herschel, being 

 a catalogue of no less than 5,079 objects, arranged in tabular form, 

 giving, besides ample references, the Right Ascension for 1860, Janu- 

 ary 0, the annual precession in Right Ascension for 1880 ; the North 

 Polar Distance for 1860, January ; the annual precession in North 

 Polar Distance for 1880, and a summary description from a comparison 

 of all the observations, remarks, &c. The present catalogue is pub- 

 lished at a most opportune time, as, should the efforts which are now 

 making to procure for the University of Melbourne, in Australia, a 

 reflector of the first magnitude prove, as is to be hoped, successful, it 

 is understood that one of the principal uses to which it will be de- 

 voted will be the examination and exact delineation of the numerous 

 and wonderful objects of this class which the southern hemisphere 

 present's. The present work is a general catalogue of all the Nebulas 

 and Clusters of Stars actually known, both northern and southern, so 

 arranged and reduced as to enable an observer at once to turn his 

 instrument on any one of them, as well as to put it in his power im- 

 mediately to ascertain whether any object of this nature which he may 

 encounter in his observations is new, or should be set down as one 

 previously observed. For want of such a general catalogue, in fact, 

 a great many nebulae have been, from time to time, in the ' Astrono- 

 mische Nachrichten,' and elsewhere, introduced to the world as new 

 discoveries, which have since been identified with nebulae already de- 

 scribed and well known. Many a supposed comet, too, would have 

 been recognized at once as a nebula, had such a general catalogue been 

 at hand, and much valuable time been thus saved to their observers in 

 looking out fur them again. 



Mr. Lassell has offered to the University of Melbourne his four- 

 feet equatorial, constructed by himself, at present in use at Malta. 

 This magnificent gift has been accepted by that body, and it will, we 

 expect, before long be on its way to Australia. 



Mr. De la Rue has given an interesting account of his recent visit 

 to Russia, in order to be present at the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 

 Pulkowa Observatory, which is now under the direction of M. Otto 

 Struve, son of the late director, M. W. Struve, of world-wide renown. 

 Within the last few years great pains have been taken to test the accu- 

 racy of the instruments, it beiug desired that the observations made with 

 them should give the absolute places of celestial bodies. The electro- 

 magnetic recording of transit-observations has been adopted on a 

 plan differing somewhat from that employed at Greenwich. In the 

 first place, the tappet-apparatus is held in the hand, not attached to 

 the transit, as at Greenwich ; and when the observer sees a star enter the 

 field, he records on the registration-paper, as it is unreeled, the name of 

 the star, expressed in Morse's alphabetical signals ; together with any 

 remark he may think necessary ; then, as the star crosses the wires in 

 succession, the tappet-apparatus, moved by the hand, records each 

 contact ; and, when the star has left the last wire, any further remark 



