556 



SCIEJSCE, 



[Vol. VI., No. 151 



in a general way is off the Celebrass shoal, about 

 forty miles from the Tonga Islands, toward the 

 Fiji Islands. Its position is approximately in 

 latitude 20° 28' south, and longitude 175° 21' west 

 from Greenwich. Further details are expected by 

 another steamer. The island was photographed 

 by the British consul to Samoa, who was a passen- 

 ger. 



ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 



Harvard college observatory. — Professor Pick- 

 ering's annual report was presented to the visiting 

 committee on Dec. 3, and shows most gratifying 

 progTess in the work, in spite of the serious cur- 

 tailment of the income of the observatory during 

 the past year. The fifteen-inch equatorial is still 

 devoted largely to photometry ; and, besides a large 

 amount of routine work accomplished, a series of 

 observations of the temporary star which recently 

 appeared in the nebula of Andromeda was ob- 

 tained. Professor Eogers's excellent work with the 

 meridian circle continues, and the reduction of his 

 zone is nearly ready for the press. The meridian 

 photometer also has been in active operation. By 

 the aid of the Bache fund an important investiga- 

 tion has been undertaken in stellar photography, 

 which has already been referred to {Science, vi. 

 443). Mr. Chandler's work with his almucantar 

 we have noticed from time to time, and we look 

 forward with much interest to the pubhcation of 

 a detailed description and theory of the instru- 

 ment, which it is understood he has prepared. The 

 telegraphic distribution of important astronomical 

 discoveries, for which this observatory is the 

 American centre, has been successfully continued 

 under the supervision of Mr. Ritchie. 



The Lick observatory. — The Clarks have made 

 wonderfully rapid progress with the crown-glass 

 disk of the immense three-foot lens for the Lick 

 observatory. The work of grinding was begun on 

 the crown-disk about two months ago, and already 

 they are able to set up the lens for examination by 

 artificial light. The flint-disk has been practically 

 ready for some time, and, with continued favora- 

 ble progress, they hope to finish the objective by 

 the autumn of 1886. It has not yet been decided 

 who is to make the mounting for the instrument, 

 or the dome which is to cover it. We notice that 

 the thirty-inch objective for the Nice observatory 

 has just been finished by the Henry brothers, and 

 that it has been sent to M. Gautier, who has 

 charge of the construction of the equatorial ; the 

 whole to be mounted at Nice in April, 1886. 



The Biela meteor - shower. — Reports from 

 Europe show that we in this country entirely 

 missed the thickest part of the meteor-shower 



of Nov. 27, as it had dwindled to comparatively 

 insignificant proportions when our twilight came 

 on. From various places in England and on the 

 continent, where the sky was clear on the 27th, 

 come reports of brilliant showers, sometimes too 

 rapid for counting, and in many cases exceeding 

 sixty per minute for a single observer. They 

 were also very bright, and left trains continuing 

 visible in some cases as long as 30^, and frequently 

 appeared almost simultaneously in bunches of 

 five, eight, or ten. These were all early in the 

 evening for European longitudes, and we shall 

 have to wait for reports from farther east, in 

 Arabia or India, perhaps even from Dr. Doberck 

 at Hongkong, before we can be sure that we have 

 heard of the maximum activity of the shower. 

 This seems to have been w^ell heralded in advance. 

 The earliest observations thus far reported are by 

 Mr. Barnard of Nashville, Tenn., who observed 

 twenty or thirty meteors from the Biela radiant 

 during an interval of two or three hours of clear 

 sky on the evening of Nov. 25 ; and both he, and 

 Mr. Denning of Bristol, England, counted them at 

 the rate of one hundred or more per hour on the 

 evening of the 26th. On the 27th none of the 

 comets in this country appear to have exceeded 

 two hundred or three hundred per hour for a 

 single observer, and Mr. Denning reports that 

 those of the 28th were very small and insignificant 

 in a clear sky at Bristol. 



New star in Orion. — A complete set of observa- 

 tions of the new star discovered by Mr. J. E. Gore, 

 an English astronomer, on Dec. 13, was obtained 

 at Harvard college observatory on Dec. 10, — the 

 very evening on which the despatch was received 

 from Lord Crawford, — settling the non-identity of 

 the star with D.M. + 20°, 1172, the star named in 

 the despatch. A meridian circle observation by 

 Professor Rogers gave for the position of the nova 

 R.A. 5^ 49™ 4^.25 : Dec. -1- 20^ 9' 15". 6. Profes- 

 sor Pickering's photometric measures made the 

 magnitude 6.2, and the spectroscope showed the 

 existence of bright bands. Two excellent photo- 

 graphs fixing the position of the star with refer- 

 ence to neighboring stars were obtained, and one 

 photograph of the spectrum. The indications are 

 suggestive of the new star being a long-period vari- 

 able, and there was a slight suspicion of a dimi- 

 nution in magnitude during the first six or seven 

 hours it was under observation. 



METEOROLOGICAL NOTES. 



An unusual tornado. — The Alabama weather- 

 service report for November describes the torna- 

 does that occurred on the 6th of that month. 

 At Decatur the storm is reported to have come 



