Abstract
THE Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society has been awarded to Prof. H. Kimura, director of the International Latitude Observatory, Mizusawa, Japan, since 1899, for his valuable work on the variation of latitude. When the scheme for international co-operation was decided upon, the observing programme was drawn up by Prof. Kimura. From the very first year's observations he pointed out that the observed change of latitude at the different stations gave large residuals when analysed in the form x cos X -f y sin X where X is the longitude, but that these were greatly reduced when a common term known as the Z term was introduced. The existence of this term with an annual period has been verified by later observations, although its origin has not been fully cleared up. When the International Astronomical Union took over the discussion of the international observations from the Central Bureau at Potsdam, Prof. Kimura was naturally placed in charge of it, with the work of reducing and co-ordinating the observations made at the different stations. Under his direction the work has increased considerably, and he was to a large extent instrumental in securing the restarting of the latitude station at Gaithersburg and the starting of a new station at Kitab (in place of the former station at Tschardjui) on the northern parallel, in addition to the commencement of regular observations in the southern hemisphere at La Plata and Adelaide and at a station near the equator in Java.
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Prof. H. Kimura: Royal Astronomical Society Medallist. Nature 137, 101 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137101a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137101a0