manac.

I. By Professor Respighi, at Bologna, on the 28th of November, 1862. Its orbit is sensibly parabolic.

II. By Dr. Bruhns, at Leipsic, 2d of December, 1862. On account of its rapid motion towards the south, it appears to have been observed but a short time in the northern hemisphere, from which only we have results. The observations are satisfied by a parabola.

III. By Dr. Klinkerfues, at Göttingen, 11th of April, 1862. On the day following its discovery, its appearance was described at Paris as "very fine, the disc (nucleus) surrounded by a fan-shaped luminosity." It was observed at Washington, 4th of May, and appeared as a round nebulosity 5' or 6' in diameter. It was visible to the naked eye during the early part of May. The observations extend over an interval of about five months, and its orbit seems to be slightly elliptical.

IV. By Professor Respighi, at Bologna, 12th of April, 1862. On the 14th of April, its nucleus was as bright as a star of 6th magnitude, and its coma 40' long. Its orbit is parabolic.

V. By Mr. Bäcker, at Nauen, near Berlin. 9th of October. Its appearance was that of a faint nebula. It has been observed at Washington; and thus far a parabolic orbit satisfies the observations.

Probably because of its position in the morn ing twilight, the short period comet of Brorsen passed its perihelion unobserved in 1862-1863. That of Winnecke will pass its perihelion 23d of November, 1863, at which time its right ascension will be 17 hours, and its declination 21° south. Companions to Sirius.-It was stated in the last volume that Mr. Alvan Clark, at Cambridge

with the great refractor of his construction. This instrument, unrivalled for its magnitude, is 216 lines in diameter. Mr. Goldschmidt has announced to the Academy of Sciences at Paris the discovery of five other companions, the diameter of his object-glass being only 46 lines! He has given a diagram showing their places.

Mr. Dawes appears to have been the second person to recognize any of the newly-discovered companions by Goldschmidt. He announces having found the minute star d some 54" to 57" cast of the principal one.

Companion of Procyon.-Mr. Hermann Romberg, who has the care of the Observatory of J. Gurney Barclay, Esq., at Leyton, Essex (England), has given measures for angle of position (294°54′) and distance (45".8) of a 10 mag, companion to Procyon made in March last. And thus the anomalous motions of Sirius and Procyon are in a fair way to be accounted for. Reasoning upon the observed character of their deviations, as deduced from a discussion of observations made by different astronomers since 1755, as far back as 1844 the illustrious Bessel predicted the presence of other bodies not very remote from them.

Variable Nebula.-The nebula near Tauri was not noticed by Chacornac in observations between the 26th to 31st of January, 1854, nor even as late as 17th of December of the same year. It was first seen 19th of October, 1855; and there are strong reasons for believing that it must be numbered among the extraordinary and as yet inexplicable celestial phenomena.

Solar Parallax.-During the year 1862, a series of observations was made upon the planet Mars when near opposition, for the purpose of determining its parallax, and thence that of the sun. The series first proposed embraced differen

tial measures in declination, to be made near the meridian. An ephemeris was prepared at the Washington Observatory, and distributed to astronomers in every part of the world. Corresponding observations, made at the observatory at Santiago, in Chile, have been received, and a discussion of the results will take place on arrival of those promised from Williamstown, Australia.

A second series of meridional observations was asked for by Dr. Winnecke, of the Pulkowa Observatory. A comparison of the results made there with those obtained from the Cape of Good Hope Observatory, indicates that the value (8.5776) derived by Encke from computations of the transits of Venus must be increased about one-twenty-fourth part. A similar comparison of observations between Greenwich and Williamstown gives a value, 8".932, closely accordant with the former, and by the elaboration of his lunar tables, Professor Hausen finds a value 8.97. In a discussion of the theories of Venus, the Earth, and Mars, Le Verrier had previously found the necessity for adopting 8".95, a value intermediate between the two preceding, which is no little remarkable.

Sun's Heat.-For an interesting paper relative to the heat of the sun, the reader is referred to the June number of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine.

Light of the Sun.-Mr. Alvan Clark has instituted a series of experiments to determine tho comparative light of the sun and stars, and finds that the former would be visible as a star of the sixth magnitude if it were removed to 1,200,000 times its present distance. If the distances ascribed to several of the stars from parallax be true, he thinks astronomers will find our glorious luminary only a very small star.

Movement of the Solar System in Space.-Mr. Airy, the Astronomer Royal, has completed the computations for inferring the direction and amount of the movement of our system in space, from the observed proper motions of 1167 stars. The result is that the sun is moving towards a point in A. R. 2619, N. P. D. 65°; and at the distance of a star of the first magnitude, the annual motion subtends an angle of 0".. But the comparison of the sum of the squares of apparent proper motions, uncorrected, with the sum of the squares of apparent proper motions corrected for motion of the sun, shows so small an advance in the explanation of the stars' apparent movements, as to throw great doubt on the certainty of results, the sum of the squares being diminished by only the twenty-fifth part. The Astronomer Royal states that the indicated point in space does not differ much from Sir William Herschel's, but depends much in N. P.D. on the accuracy of Bradley's quadrant observations.

Annual Parallax.-Mr. Krueger has published in the Comptes Rendus of the Royal Society of Finland the results of a series of observations made with the Heliometer at Rome to determine the parallaxes of 21258 Lalande, and 17415 of the Argelander-Oeltzen Catalogue. The former has a proper motion of 4".5, and the latter of 1".4. Their computed parallaxes are +0′′.260 10′′.020, and +0.247 0.021 respectively, the former agreeing closely with the result previously obtained by M. Auwers, of Königsberg.

Zodiacal Light.-A new theory of this interesting phenomenon, by Professor Challis, of Cam

bridge (Eng.), may be found in the January and February numbers of the London, Edinburgh, aud Dublin Philosophical Magazine.

August Meteors.-On the nights of 9th and 10th they were extremely numerous during the early portions of each evening. The greater numbers on both nights radiated from a point below and eastward of the pole star, one portion passing to the east and the other westward of the meridian and very slightly inclined to the horizon. Their marked peculiarity was that almost without exception they left brilliant trains, visible 200, and sometimes even 30°, in extent. The observers near New Haven have published their results in Silliman's Journal.

Celestial Photography.-Dr. Draper, of the University of New York, has made great improvements in this branch of astronomical investigation. He has perfected a picture of the moon, made under a magnifying power of 320, which represents our satellite on a scale of about 70 miles to the inch. Ilis telescope has a silvered glass mirror, and is kept steady whilst motion is communicated to the sensitized photograph-plato by clockwork. An illustrated account of his operations will shortly be published by the Smithsonian Institution.

Lewis Rutherford, Esq., of New York, has continued experiments in stellar photography, for the purpose of obtaining magnified pictures from which angles of position and distance of double stars could be measured with greater satisfaction than the micrometer affords; but, for the want of a sufficiently sensitive process, the anticipations of great gains have not been realized. It has been found impossible to obtain impressions of the smaller stars, and thus the number of objects to which the process seems applicable becomes so reduced as to afford scant encouragement. An apparatus for the same purpose has been prepared at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, by the Astronomer Royal, and lines in the spectra of 19 stars have been measured. They are generally nebulous, resembling the solar line II.

Mr. Huggins and Dr. W. A. Miller, in England, and Rev. Professors Secchi and Donati, in Italy, are also experimenting on this subject.

Publications.-Among the valuable publications of the year, the following may be named:- Manual of Spherical and Practical Astronomy, by Professor William Chauvenet. Published by Lippincott & Co.

Positiones media stellarum fixarum in zonis regiomontanis a Besselio inter +15° et +45° declinationis, by Professor Max Weisse. Published by the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg.

Annales de l'Observatoire de Paris. Observations: tomes III., IV., V., XVI., XVII. Published by the Imperial Observatory.

Atlas Ecliptique, par Chacornac: sheets 2, 2 bis, 9, 15, 39, 46. Published by the Imperial Observatory.

Astronomical, Magnetical, and Meteorological Observations made at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, 1860. Published by the Admiralty.

Astronomical and Meteorological Observations made at the Naval Observatory, Washington, 1861. Published by the Navy Department.

The Greenwich Observations for 1861 have been published in England, but have not yet reached this country. The Washington observations for 1862 will be published in December.

IN our volume for 1863 we gave some account of the United States Coast Survey, the institution which has unquestionably done more hitherto than any other one in the land towards establishing on a firm basis the scientific reputation of the United States abroad, and probably more than any other also in disseminating scientific methods and stimulating to scientific progress at home in all directions within its scope and influence.

Immediately following was a similar account of the Smithsonian Institution, an organization aiming at a still wider range of influence,namely, both the increase and the diffusion of knowledge; and these, too, with no restrictions of nationality, and no special devotion to any one department or class of departments in learning or science. Of the large and wise policy, and of the able administration which has characterized this magnificent trust, the nation to whom it was confided may well be proud.

We propose now to give some account of a third prominent American institution of science, the Naval Observatory at Washington,-which has been equipped in a style worthy of a great government, and, until the outbreak of the present insurrection, furnished with larger means in men and money than any other Observatory in the world. If ample facilities in these respects had been in themselves sufficient, it would long since have taken rank with the noblest astronomical institutions in existence, eclipsing most of them, and vying with Pulkowa itself,-the noblest shrine ever reared to astronomy. Although it may not until recently have answered all the expectations of the nation, or indeed of astronomers anywhere, it has now earned a title to very prominent rank among observatories by the high degree of accuracy to which all its observations may lay claim, the system with which they are carried on with reference to definite ends, the regularity with which all its instruments are constantly employed each for that work to which it is best adapted, and for the promptness with which the observations are reduced and rendered available for use as fast as they are made. These are the characteristics of an Observatory of the first class.

It is somewhat remarkable, when we consider our national ambition and our aspirations for intellectual progress, that so long a time elapsed before the establishment of any institution in the United States claiming even the name of an astronomical observatory, if we except some temporary structures erected during colonial times for special purposes.

Prominent among those who early advocated and persistently urged the foundation of such an institution, was John Quincy Adams. As early as October, 1823, while Secretary of State, in a letter to one of the corporation of Harvard College, he urged the establishment of an Astronomical Observatory at Cambridge, and offered to contribute one thousand dollars personally towards this end in case the requisite sum should be raised within two years, the concealment of his name being, however, enjoined. At the expiration of that time, the amount not having been subscribed, Mr. Adams renewed the offer; but the spirit of liberality had not at that time been awakened among the friends of science, and his effort was in vain.

In 1825, in the first Message to Congress after his accession to the Presidency of the United States, he earnestly recommended the establishment of a National Observatory, as also of a Uniform Standard of Weights and Measures, of a Naval Academy, a Nautical Almanac, and a National University. But all these recommendations were treated with neglect by Congress; although time has written a sufficient commentary on their wisdom and foresight. An excellent report on the subject, advocating the views of the President, was made by Mr. C. F. Mercer, chairman of the committee of the House to whom, in the ordinary routine, the subject was referred; but the recommendations of the President and of the Committee were suffered to lie unnoticed on the tables of both Houses; and it was reserved for the Emperor Nicholas of Russia to follow those counsels which party rancor precluded the Congress of the United States from adopting on the recommendation of their President, and, by the establishment of the noblest Observatory of the world, to render the capital of his empire a capital of astronomical science.

The first structure in the United States claiming the name of a fixed astronomical observatory, was erected on Capitol Hill in Washington, in the year 1834, by Lieutenant Wilkes, for the Naval Depot of Charts. It was equipped with a three and three-quarter inch transit-instrument made for the Coast Survey in 1815 and loaned to the Navy Department on Lieutenant Wilkes's appli cation, and some portable instruments made for use in an exploring expedition contemplated by the Government in 1828. It does not, however, appear that any observations were ever made by Lieutenant Wilkes other than those necessary for rating the chronometers. During the next year a five-inch telescope was placed in the steeple of one of the buildings of Yale College, by the aid of which Halley's comet was roughly observed by Professors Olmsted and Loomis. In 1838, another small astronomical structure was built at Hudson, Ohio, through the exertions of Professor Elias Loomis, and furnished with an English equatorial of four inches aperture and a threeinch transit-circle. Professor Loomis determined the longitude and latitude of his observatory, and made observations of five comets and sixteen occultations, although the duties of a professor engaged in constant tuition left him no opportunity for further astronomical research.

In June, 1838, information was sent by Mr. Rush, our minister in England, that he had received the money bequeathed by James Smithson for founding in Washington an institution, bearing his name, for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. Mr. Adams again exerted his most strenuous efforts to secure the establishment of an Astronomical Observatory as a part of the institution. He immediately waited on President Van Buren, and in a long interview urged his views of the subject. A few months later, at the call of the Secretary of State, he reduced his views to writing, advocating the application of part of the fund to the establishment of a great Observatory and of a Nautical Almanac. Mr. Van Buren expressed his concurrence with the views, but never acted in the premises.

Indeed, so bitter was the rancor of political par