Abstract
THE NATAL OBSERVATORY.—Mr. Nevill's report upon the work of the Natal Observatory, during the fiscal year ending last June, has been issued. The staff of the Observatory consists of an astronomical assistant, a meteorological assistant, and a computor, all of them ladies. In spite of such limited assistance, much important work has been accomplished. The observations of Mars during the opposition of 1892 have been completely reduced; and as soon as the corresponding observations made at the northern observatories have been reduced and published, it is proposed to compare the two series, and obtain from them a new determination of the distance of the sun. A contribution to the knowledge of the variation of latitude is included in the report. Since 1884 a number of observations have been made, by Talcott's method, to determine the latitude of the observatory. The observations invite consideration, on account of the fact that they were made and reduced before any special attention had been directed to the variation, arising from the suspected periodical inequality, in the direction of the polar axis of the earth. The mean latitude, deduced from the 1023 observations made during the six years 1884–1890, was 29° 51′ 46″˙68. The results obtained, from the separate observations of each year, show a steady gradual decrease since 1885. The observed latitude of the Observatory seems to have reached a maximum in that year, and to have steadily decreased since, at a nearly uniform rate of 0″˙27 per annum. The rate of decrease up to 1890, however, appears to have quickly diminished, indicating a periodical irregularity in the apparent value of the latitude of the Observatory. Mr. Nevill remarks that a great deal of important work has accumulated at the Observatory, but the Government of Natal will not afford the necessary facilities for printing and publishing it.
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Our Astronomical Column. Nature 51, 327–328 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/051327a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051327a0