Abstract
THE Kyoto Imperial University has accepted a donation equivalent to about £10,000 from the Osaka Electric Railway Co. towards the building of an observatory on the southern peak of Ikomasan at a height of 640 metres. The observatory will include a main building with a 9-metre dome, a solar laboratory, housing for a reflector and a dormitory. The equipment of the solar department of the Kwasan Observatory is to be transferred to this new site, in addition to other instruments including the 80-cm. Tomkins reflector. Later a large museum devoted to astronomical exhibits and those of allied sciences will be built near the Ikomasan Observatory. Prof. Yamamoto will be the director of the group. The Kwasan Observatory will then become a purely academic institution. The Osaka Municipal Electric Museum, which has recently been completed, includes a Zeiss planetarium, which is installed under an 18-metre dome on the sixth floor of the Museum. Bulletin No. 326 of the Kwasan Observatory directs attention to a daily series of sun-spot observations made for fourteen years by Mr. Katue Misawa, whose failing eyesight now prevents the series from being carried on. The observations, which have been made regularly under excellent weather conditions, have been of great use in supplying data with the minimum delay to Japanese investigators. Observations of the zodiacal light are receiving special attention in Japan, and it is planned to establish a special observatory at Onomiti, Hiro-sima-Ken, at a height of 150 metres. The observed longitude of the Kwasan Observatory, deduced from 74 observations made with the 90 mm. Bamberg transit in conjunction with the reception of Greenwich wireless time signals, is - 9h3m10·315s ± 0·002s or E. 135 ° 47' 34-72"± 0·03". The elements of latitude variation for the epoch 1934·0-1935·9 computed by Dr. Kimura from data provided by five northern stations are given in Bulletin No. 322.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Astronomy in Japan. Nature 140, 60 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/140060a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/140060a0