Abstract
THE 1941 report of H.M. Astronomer at the Cape, though showing only too clearly the impact of the War on South African astronomy, contains much of interest. The reversible transit circle has been fairly fully employed in making 7,234 transit observations, including fifty-seven of the moon, which were undertaken in view of the fact that lunar observations have perforce been dropped from the restricted programmes of many European observatories. With the Victoria telescope the stellar parallax programme has been continued, 2,642 plates having been secured during the year. A new determination of the parallax of Proxima Centauri, the star closest to the sun, gives 0.763" ± 0.007", in good agreement with the previously accepted figure of 0.762" ± 0.005" this should be compared with the value 0.756" ± 0.007" for α Centauri. It is interesting to note that during recent years the number of plates used for a parallax determination has increased to thirty, taken over three years or more : this change is fully in accord with the experience gained in the cloudier weather (but better seeing) at Greenwich.
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The Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope. Nature 151, 78–79 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151078d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151078d0