Abstract
THE UNIVERSITY OBSERVATORY, OXFORD.—Prof. Pritchard has published No. 1 of Astronomical Observations made at the University Observatory, Oxford. It comprises observations made between the autumn of 1875, when the establishment was first organised, and the end of 1877. They relate to the satellites of Saturn, double stars, and the five comets discovered in 1877, by Borrelly, Winnecke, Swift, Coggia, and Tempel, for which provisional elements and, in the case of Winnecke's comet, an extensive ephemeris are added; also elements of the orbits of ξ Ursa Majoris, 70 Ophiuchi, and μ2 Boötis, and comparison of the same with the interpolation curve drawn according to the method of Sir J. Herschel. The observations of the satellites of Saturn consist of differences of R.A. and N.P.D. from the centre of the primary, facilitated by the ephemerides which Mr. Marth has regularly supplied; together with the other observations now printed, they have been made with the refractor of 12¼-inches aperture, constructed for the observatory by Mr. Howard Grubb, of Dublin, Mr. W. E. Plummer, the first assistant, being credited with the greater part of them. In addition to the above work, it is mentioned that nearly twelve hundred measurable photographs have been secured by means of Dr. De la Rue's reflector, which he presented to the Observatory, and which is mounted in the eastern dome, and a very beautiful instrument for completing the measurement of these photographs has been recently received through the liberality of the same gentleman. The institution is under the control of a Board of Visitors, as usual in so many of the more important astronomical establishments at the present day, the Board being composed of the Vice-Chancellor, the Proctors, the Astronomer-Royal, the Director of the Cambridge Observatory, the Radcliffe Observer, and four other members elected by the Convocation of the University; these members are at present, Dr. De la Rue, Prof. Bartholomew Price, J. A. Dale, M.A.and W. Esson, M.A.
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OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN . Nature 18, 103–104 (1878). https://doi.org/10.1038/018103a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/018103a0