esa ak Te, eee oe oa ee TE eT | Aes sok 
Se: ESE aie ae eee Tee eC ee ne satin ee 
Da ts a cate ss 
ae ees erty os Uae Pere 
PAF APE Date, Neti nye CREM ere eR TS aN UE cee MEO Re ca: BACON, Pilea ASOpad kas 1, SRR Ea oe er ee her ae 
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 25 
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graphs have been obtained; heretofore nearly all the photographs 
were taken with exposures of one or two minutes, but now that 
the plates are being worked at to make a chart of the heavens, the 
exposures have been from thirty to sixty minutes, and hence the 
number obtained is not so great as it has been. Thirty-nine 
plates were devoted to special work on star clusters and nebule. 
Meridian Work.—At the suggestion of Sir Charles Todd, 
Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney have made special observations 
for a new determination of Australian latitudes. One thousand 
and fifty observed transits have been taken, and seven hundred 
and sixty-four determinations of declination. ° 
Magnetic Observations.—During the past year two French 
officers of the ‘ Missions Magnétiques du Bureau des Longitudes 
” came to the Observatory and made 
magnetic observations. It is remarkable how little variation 
there has been in the declination during the last thirty-seven 
years. In the early days of the Colony the lowest variation of 
the magnet was in 1818, viz., 8° 42’ 0”; it then increased rapidly 
and during 1857-8 was 10°; then it fell steadily until in 1873 it 
was 9° 32’ 30”; from that time to 1882 it varied from 9° 32’ 0” 
to 9° 35’ 47”; then fell to its minimum in 1893, 9° 28’ 37”; and 
then increased again until now, 1896, it is 9° 38’ 0” 
Ocean Pacifique Ouest, 
Meteorology.—During the year the rainfall report of 1894 was 
published. In addition to the usual data about rain, rivers, and 
evaporation, it contains a map shewing for each square degree 
the percentage of rain above or below the average, another shew- 
ing temperature of every month of the year for each square 
degree, and a third map giving the mean, the highest, and the 
lowest recorded temperatures, and the average shade in each 
square degree. 
A special study of meteorological records has been made with 
a view to discovering any period or cycle in the weather, and the 
effort has been successful, and the result cannot fail to be of great 
use in pastoral and farming industries. 
