Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/74

 SCIENCE.

��(Vol. v.. No. 102.

��complement hi ArgeUnder's ' Uranonietria nova ' of the northern sky, wm undertaken, and carried well toward completion, and published with slar-obarts In 1879, giving the estimated brightness of all southern stars, visible without telescopic aid, in about seventy grades of brilliancy. The observations for this work were made by the naked eye, or with ordinary binoc- ular Beld-glaBses, and entirely by t" Gould's near- sightedness pre- venting bis shar- ing immediately iu the work, al- though he di- rected aud over- looked its execu- tion with the most luUute carefulness. The «one obser- vations, by which

astronomers nn- ""■ ""t^"'* ob-'kbi

derstand the

determination ot the position of stars observed In successive belts around the sky, every star being noted as It crosses rbe field of a meridian -circle tele- BDope, were begun In August. 1872. and completed in 1ST5. In these, every one of tlii^ original tele- scopic observations was made by Dr. Gould ; and they numbered over 105,000. Since 187S the work of coropuUtion, revision, and publication, has occu- pied eight years, until now the ftiiished catalogue is before us; and Dr. Gould may proudly feel his am- bition satisfied in ending so well the work begun in outline by Lacaillo with his little telescope at the Cape of Good Hope over one hundred years ago.

Among the younger men who hare shared in Dr. Gould's laboi's at Cordoba, only one b^a remained with him through the many years since its beginning.

���which the second view, of Cordoba In the valley of the Hio Frlmero, is taken. The overshadowing of the town by the churclies is Pliaracteristic ot the place.

NOTES AND NEWS. Ln accoKDAHCB with a recommendation of the recent geodetic conference, u series of observations for latitude is to be made at the U. S. naval ob- servatory, which, taken In connec- tion with a simi- lar series made elsewhere, aud compared with

made after an Interval of some years, will assist iTDRT AT noKooBi. j^ determining

whether there are any slow changes taking place in latitudes upon the earth. Lisbon, which is very near the same par- allel as Washington, Is expected to co-operate wltb the naval observatory. The observations will be made with the prime vertical instrument; and at Washington a line-oFBcer of the navy will be detailed for the work, which will probably require several

— Prof. F. H. Snow of the University of Kansas reports that only two Decembers (In 1ST2 and 1670) in the past seventeen years were colder than that just passed. It was the cloudiest December upon record, nnd the precipitation of rain and snow was more than fifty per cent above the average. Ice formed upon the Kaw River to the thickness of thirteen incbes.

���We feel sure from the frequent mention, in the annals of the observatory, of the faithful services of Mr. John H. Thome, that the director will gladly see the name of Uils assistant associated with his own in our brief notice of the work tbey have accomplished together. The first of the accompanying cuts, reproduced from sketches by a former asslsiaut. shows the obsei^ vatorf aad tbfi lilrector'a bouse on the barranca, from

��— Tbe fifteenth annual meeting of the Wisconsin ^ academy of sciences, held at Madison from Dec. 20 to ' Dec. 3!, was unusually well attended. The academy expects to have suitable rooms assigned it in the cap- itol, OIL the completion of the additions to that build- ing, in which its library and collections can be properly placed. The latter bos become doubly valuable since the destruction of the scientific collections of the

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