66 
Astronomical Notes. 
By W. E. COOKE, M.A., Government Astronomer. 
(Read before the Society, 12th October, 1909.) 
Until comparatively recently Astronomers were mainly 
occupied with the motions and physical appearances of members 
of the solar system, but owing to the great improvements in 
instruments and especially to photographic developments, it has 
now become possible to seriously study the movements and 
distribution of stars throughout the universe. 
At an Inter-National gathering of Astronomers held in Paris 
in 1887 it was resolved to lav the foundation for this new study 
by making a photographic Survey of all stars down to at least 
the nth magnitude, and the sky was divided into eighteen 
sections, each co-operating Observatory undertaking to catalogue 
all such objects within its allotted region. In iqoo another 
meeting was held to study progress, etc., and it was found that 
three of the Southern Observatories had failed to carry out 
their promises. In order to fill one of these gaps the new Ob- 
servatory at Perth was invited to become one of the co-operating 
institutions, and the Western Australian Government pledged 
itself to carry out the necessary work. In April ,1909, a third 
meeting was held at Paris, at which I was present, and happened 
to be the sole Australian representative. Much useful work 
was accomplished in connection with the scheme, and arrange- 
ments made for giving the necessary assistance at weak points. 
I do not propose to enter into the technical details, but wish 
briefly to indicate the subject in which I was speciallv interested. 
Underlying all astronomical research is the determination 
of the exact position and motions of a certain number of standard 
stars, to which all other positions and motions can be referred. 
These standard positions are determined by means of a transit 
or meridian circle. Hitherto there has been no co-ordination 
of this essential work, and the result is that we have on our 
shelves hundreds of i atalogues, giving places for hundreds of 
thousands of stars at various epochs with varying degrees of 
exactness, but if we require really accurate positions of a dozen 
stars on any photograph covering a space of 2 degrees square 
in any part of the sky we cannot obtrin them — in fact, probably 
cannot obtain more than one or two at the outside Yet there 
has been sufficient money and energy expended during the last 
century to give all the necessary information with the utmost 
accuracy, if it had been property co-ordinated For some years 
I have had in mind a scheme for organising this branch, so as 
to avoid such waste in the future, and from the beginning have 
