Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/226

222 Donohue Comet Medal. One such medal is awarded to every discoverer of a new comet. The other is the Bruce Gold Medal, and is looked upon as one of the most important medals that can be awarded to an astronomer. It is awarded "for distinguished services to astronomy." The medal itself is a beautiful work of art, and is valuable both intrinsically and for what it symbolizes. The great value that astronomers attribute to this medal can be appreciated better when the manner of making the award is understood. The process is as follows: The directors of six observatories (Harvard, Yerkes, Lick, Berlin, Paris, and Greenwich) are each requested to nominate three men worthy to receive the medal in any given year. After these nominations are in it is usually found that six or seven names are presented to the directors of the Society from which then their choice for the medal must be made. If an award is made, therefore, it is to some one nominated by one or more (usually more) of the directors of six of the leading observatories of the world. There can be no doubt then that the recipient is justly entitled to this medal "for distinguished services to astronomy." That it is most highly prized by its recipients I quote from a typical letter of acceptance of the medal. The medallistmedalist [sic] writes, "I regard this distinction as the highest an astronomer can receive. . . ."

The results of the investigations at the Lick Observatory are issued in the Bulletins of the Lick Observatory for short articles, and in the Publications of the Lick Observatory (Volume XII. just issued) for the more extended work. Results from the Berkeley astronomical department are also issued in the Bulletins of the Lick Observatory, and one volume (VII.) of the Publications of the Lick Observatory is devoted to its investigations.

The Contributions from the Solar Observatory, Mount Wilson, California, issued by the Carnegie Institution of Washington, give to the world the results of the investigations carried on at the observatory on Mount Wilson and in the laboratories in Pasadena.

The Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific I have already mentioned. The list of astronomical publications on the Pacific coast is made complete, I think, when I mention finally the Publication of the Astronomical Society of Pomona College, an interesting quarterly popular magazine issued by the astronomical students of Pomona College.

In preparing this account of astronomy on the Pacific coast I have drawn freely from "A Brief Account of the Lick Observatory" (fourth edition), and from the annual reports of the director of the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, In conclusion I wish to express my thanks to the directors of these two observatories for their kindness in providing the illustrations.