Abstract
THE work carried out at the Cambridge Observatory under the directorship of Sir Arthur Eddington includes photo-electric observations for the purpose of testing the constancy of the light of stars similar in physical constitution to the sun (dwarf G stars). With the Northumberland equatorial, 165 measures of double stars were made, 51 being less than 1″ in separation. Dr. Woolloy began laboratory experiments in preparation for a determination of the sun's apparent magnitude, planned, in conjunction with Mr. C. R. Davidson, to be carried out in South Africa in 1940. The apparatus had been brought to a stage at which it is possible to measure with a probable error of 0·01 mag, the transmission in sensibly monochromatic light of a dark glass cutting down three magnitudes. The polarization of a spectrograph was carefully determined in several wave-lengths, and a preliminary determination of the coefficient of reflection from an unsilvered glass surface was made. Both theoretical and observational work have been carried out by research students: Dr. M. Krook (Isaac Newton student) investigating certain problems involving non-coherent absorption; D. S. Evans concluding his work on the influence of Stark effect on the centre-to-limb variation of the contours of the Balmer lines; J. Jeffreys (Isaac Newton student) on photometric work in conjunction with Dr. Woolley's research on the sun's apparent magnitude, and H. Corben working on rolativistic quantum theory. The Director has investigated the problem of how far the properties of a star of variable polytropic index are intermediate between those of polytropes corresponding to the two extreme indexes. This research is given in Monthly Notices, 99, 4. By Grace of the Regent House on June 10, 1938, the Observatory was constituted a Department in the Faculty of Mathematics, and the Observatory Syndicate was discharged. The Syndicate had been in continuous existence for 109 years, an earlier Syndicate, appointed “for considering the propriety of building an Observatory”, having met from 1818 until 1824.
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Report of the Cambridge Observatory, 1938–39. Nature 144, 747 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144747b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144747b0