Abstract
THE SOLAR PHYSICS OBSERVATORY.—The report of the director of the Solar Physics Observatory for the year ending March 31, 1916, has recently been issued, this being the third annual report since the transference of the observatory from South Kensington to Cambridge. The work of the observatory has been carried on with difficulty on account of the war, two members of the staff now being absent on military service and two on munition work. Observational work with the Newall telescope and the Huggins instruments was not attempted, but the spectroheliograph was in regular use, photographs of the sun's disc in K2-3-2 light having been obtained on 112 days, and of prominences at the limb on 93 days. Sun-spot spectra in the region λ 5300 to λ 5500 were also successfully photographed with the McClean installation. Mr. Baxandall has made considerable progress in the assignment of chemical origins of lines in stellar spectra, and in a revision of the origins given by Rowland for lines in the solar spectrum. The great majority of Rowland's identifications have been confirmed, and terrestrial equivalents for many lines not identified by Rowland have been found by reference to data subsequently published. Experimental work has established the identity of the G group of the solar spectrum with the hydrocarbon band λ 4314 (see NATURE, July 20), and it is thought that a clue has been obtained to the interpretation, in terms of carbon, of the remarkable spectrum of Comet Wells, 1882. In the department of meteorological physics, Mr. C. T. R. Wilson has continued the study of lightning discharges.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Our Astronomical Column . Nature 97, 528 (1916). https://doi.org/10.1038/097528a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/097528a0