Abstract
MR. S. W. BURNHAM has printed his Report to the Trustees of the “James Lick Trust” of observations made on Mount Hamilton, California, with reference to the location of the observatory, for the erection and endowment of which funds are thereby provided. His object being to test the adaptation of the site for astronomical purposes by observations of double-stars mainly, Mr. Burnham took with him his 6-inch refractor, by Alvan Clark and Sons, which he has used in nearly all his astronomical work, and the excellence of which has been sufficiently proved by the number of difficult double-stars discovered with it during the last six or eight years. He remained on Mount Hamilton from August 17 to October 16, and in this interval was in the observatory on every clear night, with three exceptions. During the first thirty-seven nights he states vision was first-class on all occasions with these exceptions; on two nights the ocean fogs from the valley below reached the summit of the mountain and remained all night, and on two other nights there was only medium steadiness. The kind of weather for astronomical observations during the whole period of sixty days that Mr. Burnham remained at the summit, was forty-two first-class nights, seven medium nights, and eleven cloudy and foggy ones. In the whole interval there was not a single poor night when it was clear. By first-class seeing Mr. Burnham explains that he means “such a night as will allow of the use of the highest powers to advantage, giving sharp, well-defined images, and where the closest and most difficult double-stars within the grasp of the instrument can be satisfactorily measured.” The conditions were generally very permanent for the whole night, which is not often the case in ordinary localities. On many nights Mr. Burnham remained at the telescope until daylight, and so had abundant opportunities of noting this important fact.
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The Proposed Lick Observatory . Nature 22, 515–516 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/022515a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/022515a0