4:42 Chronicles of Science. [July*} 



at present a lighthouse and a telegraph station. These it has been 

 decided to rebuild, and the observatory is also to be erected on this 

 site, where it will be about three miles west of the present building, 

 and about two hundred feet aboye the level of the sea. The site is 

 favourable for astronomical and meteorological observations ; it has 

 the great advantage of security against being built around, or of being 

 required for other purposes, and it is but little over a mile from the 

 upper portion of the Birkenhead Docks. The plans of the new build- 

 ing have been decided on, and Mr. Hartnup hopes to be established in 

 the new observatory by the latter part of the present summer. 



From Edinburgh, owing to the absence of the Astronomer Royal 

 for Scotland, upon a scientific expedition to Egypt, no report of this 

 observatory is given. 



At the Glasgow Observatory, the astronomical observations have 

 been of the usual routine character. There are at present ten public 

 clocks in the city of Glasgow, controlled by a current of electricity 

 from the normal mean-time clock of the observatory, at an average 

 distance of three miles from the controlling source. The Clyde Trus- 

 tees have also decided upon establishing controlled clocks upon both 

 sides of the river in behalf of the shipping interest, and steps are 

 now being taken for laying down a new electric wire in furtherance 

 of that object. 



At the Kew Observatory, besides the valuable observational and 

 instrumental work which renders this establishment so valuable to the 

 man of science, photographs and observations have been taken of the 

 sun's disc, at least two pictures having been taken on every day when 

 this was possible. The results of these labours have been communi- 

 cated to the Eoyal Society, and find appropriate record in our astro- 

 nomical chronicles. 



The researches in physical astronomy which have been carried on 

 at Mr. De la Hue's observatory, and at that of Mr. Huggins, do not 

 require notice here, as they are treated of at length elsewhere. The 

 latter portion of the report is devoted to a review of the progress of 

 astronomy during the past year. In it, however, we do not notice 

 anything of importance which has not been recorded in these pages. 



At the conclusion of the report, and in the form of a supplement, 

 is given a summary of the important results of Mr. Lassell's observa- 

 tions at Malta, in the form of a letter. It will be sufficient here to 

 indicate that in addition to the discovery of many nebulas heretofore 

 unobserved, and the careful re-delineation of others observed in 

 England under less favourable atmospheric circumstances, and with 

 telescopes of far less optical power, Mr. Lassell, after the most careful 

 scrutiny, comes to the conclusion that the number of the known 

 satellites of Uranus must be reduced from eight to four, and those of 

 Neptune from two to one. 



At the March meeting of the Society an important letter was read 

 from the Rev. Father Secchi to Mr. Warren De la Rue. The author 

 had been observing with a new prism for the solar eye-piece, for- 

 warded to him by Mr. De la Rue. It consists of a Herschelian prism, 



