10 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 



believe, appeared. Although we are by no means so dependent 

 for solar investigations on eclipses as in former times, for every- 

 day when the sun is visible he and all his appendages may be 

 analysed by that most wonderful of modern instruments — the 

 spectroscope, — still there are certain points which can only be 

 cleared up satisfactorily, when the glory of the sun is hidden, 

 after Nature's old-fashioned method. Some of the latest results 

 of solar work, and the inferences supposed to be warranted 

 thereby, were given in a paper read at a Meeting of the Royal 

 Society in England, in May last, by Mr. Lockyer, in which the 

 work carried on under his superintendence at his Laboratory for 

 Solar Physics at South Kensington, was fully set forth. It is 

 evident from this paper that though remarkable advances have 

 been made in our knowledge of the great centre of light and 

 heat, under improved methods of observation, with greatly 

 improved instruments, we are still in some respects only groping 

 after a solution. 



Without the aid of Photography it may be safely said that 

 such astronomical work would be impossible. The photography 

 of sun spots by M. Janssen of Paris, and the photography 

 of nebulse by the Brothers Henry, mark one of the greatest 

 conquests achieved by this method of work. It is hopeless 

 to attempt to describe the Comets now being discovered. With 

 the increased number of observers, and the greatly improved 

 instruments, the sky is seen to swarm with these erratic bodies. 

 The most notable are those of Fabry, Barnard, and Brooks, and 

 all of them essentially telescopic. At the Paris Observatory a 

 splendid new telescope has been erected, designed for their special 

 observation, and already very useful results have been achieved. 



When our able Astronomer and highly esteemed member, Mr. 

 H. C. Russell, returns to Sydney, we may hope to hear from him 

 much that is most interesting in connection with Astronomical 

 Science. As you know, at the instigation of Admiral Mouchez, 

 the director of the Paris Observatory, backed up by the opinion 

 and approval of the learned societies of Europe, it was determined 



