Abstract
PUBLICATIONS OF THE WASHBURN OBSERVATORY, VOL. IV.—In the month of March 1884, Prof. Holden offered to Prof. Auwers to undertake the observation at Madison of the 303. fundamental stars required for the southern zones of the Astronomische Gesellschaft. In view, however, of the smallness of the staff of the Observatory, Prof. Holden would only pledge himself to secure four complete observations of each star; but, with his assistants, Mr. Comstock worked with so much zeal and energy that on his appointment to the Lick Observatory in the autumn of 1885, the stars from oh. to 6h. of R.A., and from 12h. to 24h. had all been completely observed six times, the number Prof. Auwers had desired, in each element. Mr. Updegraff and Miss Lamb, who had latterly been Prof. Holden's assistants, succeeded in bringing the entire work to completion by the close of 1885, no fewer than 6444 observations of stars, irrespective of observations of the nadir point, having been secured in the course of its carrying out. The observations were always kept in a forward state of reduction, and thus the present volume contains the results of the entire work. Prof. Holden was not, however, able to give the observations so full a discussion as he had intended, and as they themselves seemed to merit by their accuracy. The probable error of a single R.A. of stars of the 303 list, observed in 1884, he found to be ± 0.037s. for himself, ± 0.03 1s. for Mr. Comstock; and for a single declination, for himself ± 0″.400, for Mr. Comstock ± 0″.436.
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 35, 159–160 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/035159a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/035159a0