Abstract
THE CORDOBA DURCHMUSTERUNG.—Mr. John Thome, the Director of the National Argentine Observatory, is to be congratulated upon the publication of the Cordoba Durchmusterung Catalogue, containing the brightness and position of every fixed star down to the tenth magnitude comprised in the belt of the heavens between 22° and 32° of south declination. The results are a continuation of the Durchmusterungs of Argelander and Schönfeldt from their southern limit. In the present volume 179,800 stars are catalogued, but altogether the places of 340,380 stars have been determined down to – 42°. The observations for this great catalogue were begun in 1885 and ended early in 1891. They reach the enormous number of 1,108,600, and were made entirely by Mr. Thome and Mr. R. H. Tucker. The area over which the observations have extended is 6075 degrees of a great circle, hence the mean density of stars is 56˙2 stars per square degree. The corresponding mean density for Argelander is 15˙2, and for Schonfeldt 18˙5. The density varies considerably, however, in different parts of the sky, and ranges from 70 to 160 stars per square degree in the Milky Way. Mr. Thome says that a series of twelve maps, each embracing two hours of right ascension and twenty degrees in declination, has been constructed upon the scale adopted by Argelander, and will be issued during next year with the second volume of the catalogue, containing stars within the belt from 32° to 42° south declination. The construction of these maps, and the preparation of a catalogue like that of which the first part has just reached us, involves an enormous amount of labour. Indeed, it is difficult to understand how, amidst the vicissitudes to which an observatory in the Argentine Republic must be subject, and with such a meagre staff as that under Mr. Thome's direction, it has been possible to do so much excellent work.
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Our Astronomical Column. Nature 48, 401–402 (1893). https://doi.org/10.1038/048401a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/048401a0