Abstract
YALE COLLEGE OBSERVATORY.—The report of this Observatory for the year ending June 1889 has recently appeared. Mr. Brown, the Secretary, records the carrying out of several improvements in the grounds of the Observatory, and the continuation of the work of the Thermometric Bureau, 7475 thermometers having been received for verification during the year. Dr. Elkin, the astronomer in charge of the heliometer, completed the measures for the triangulation of the region near the North Pole during the summer of 1888, and the necessary reductions are well advanced. In October 1888 a series of observations for the parallax of Iris was commenced in connection with similar series to be effected at the Cape and at Leipzig, but measures were only obtained on thirty-four instead of sixty-five nights. In addition to these, however, 168 sets, each consisting of sixteen pointings, were obtained by Messrs. Elkin and Hall, for the diurnal parallax of the same planet. The discussion of the whole series of measures has been undertaken by the Yale astronomers, and the work has already been commenced. A series of measures for the parallaxes of Victoria and Sappho are now being undertaken, and it is expected that two additional observatories, those of Bamberg and Göttingen, will co-operate in the work. The heliometer has also been employed in further researches on stellar parallax; Procyon and Altair having been taken up by Mr. Hall, Vega and Regulus by Dr. Elkin. During the winter Mr. Hall completed the reductions of his work on the orbit of Titan; whilst Dr. Elkin took part in the observation of the total solar eclipse of January 1, 1889, which he observed from Winnemucca, Nevada, under very favourable circumstances.
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Our Astronomical Column. Nature 40, 448 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/040448a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/040448a0