Abstract
THE HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY, U.S.—The thirty-ninth Annual Report of this Institution has been issued, and with it Prof. Pickering's summary of observations of variable stars in 1884, made agreeably to the plan suggested by him in a communication to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (vol. xix. p. 296). Thirteen observers, private and professional, have co-operated in these observations, amongst them Mr. Knott, of Cuckfield, and Mr. T. W. Backhouse, of Sunderland. In the summary referred to, the positions of the stars for 1875, the limits of variation and the periods, as far as reliably determined, are repeated from the circular of last year, and these particulars are followed by a statement of the number of observations of each star, made by the various observers in the course of 1884, so that it is easy to see which objects most require attention. It is certain that in this branch of observational astronomy there is ample work for a much larger number, of co-operators, which it may be hoped that Prof. Pickering will succeed in enlisting amongst our amateurs, and eventually it may be possible to particularise the objects which each one may undertake to watch effectively, so as to secure observations of the whole or the majority of the list in each year.
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 32, 37–38 (1885). https://doi.org/10.1038/032037a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/032037a0