Abstract
ASTRONOMICAL PHOTOGRAPHY.—M. Mouchcz, the Director of the Observatory of Paris, has communicated to the Academy of Sciences a brief account of some experimental attempts to photograph very small stars, which have been lately made at that establishment. The ecliptical star-charts, commenced by Chacornac, but interrupted in their formation by his decease, were taken up by MM. Paul and Prosper Henry in 1872. These charts include all stars to the thirteenth magnitude; thirty-six of the entire number of seventy-two required for the whole ecliptical zone were completed by Chacornac; these contain 60,000 stars; while sixteen more, containing 36,000 stars, have been constructed by MM. Henry, who will shortly finish four others, with 15,000 stars. But they now find themselves in face of a difficulty which can hardly be overcome by the ordinary process of charting. The condensation of stars in those regions where the Galaxy traverses the ecliptic is so great as apparently to defy an accurate and complete representation of their stellar contents, on the methods adopted for the greater part of the zone, notwithstanding all the experience and well-known skill of the observers.
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 30, 496 (1884). https://doi.org/10.1038/030496a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/030496a0