NOTICES FROM THE LICK OBSERVATORY.

PREPARED BY MEMBERS OF THE STAFF.

THE NATIONAL OBSERVATORY OF PARIS.*

The accompanying cuts are copied from Lieut. WINTERHALTER'S Report on European Observatories, by the kind permission of the Superintendent of the U. S. Naval Observatory (See Publ. A. S. P., vol. iii, page 40). The very short description here given is condensed from that of Lieut. WINTERHALTER and from other sources. The history and work of this celebrated observatory are so well known that no long account is necessary, but it will be of especial interest to all, to see the views of the building in which the most famous astronomers of France have labored. The mere list of its Directors is a reminder of the brilliant place of France in the domains of practical and theoretical astronomy and astronomical physics. The Directors have been J. D. CASSINI (1669-1712), J. J. CASSINI (1712-56), C. F. CASSINI de THURY (1756-84), J. D. CASSINI, Comte de THURY (1784-93), LALANDE (1795-?), MÉCHAIN (1801), ALEXIS BOUVARD (1804), ARAGO (1811-53), LE VERRIER (1854-70), DELAUNAY (1870-73), LE VERRIER (1873-77), MOUCHEZ (1877- -).

The Observatory was built by PERRAULT, the famous architect of LOUIS XIV, about 1667, and is therefore one of the oldest as well as one of the most celebrated in Europe.

It has always been intimately connected with the French Academy of Sciences and its earlier observations were printed in the Mémoires of that institution. Its work in the last half of the present century is published in a magnificent series of some seventy quarto volumes, as well as in the Bulletin Astronomique,

* Admiral E. MOUCHEZ, Director.

a monthly journal of the very highest class. The principal instruments are a 29-inch, 15-inch, 12-inch, two 91⁄2-inch refractors, two meridian circles and other meridian instruments and very many minor instruments.

The photographic refractor of 13 inches aperture, which has been taken as the model for all the instruments to be used in making the International Photographic Charts of the whole heavens, was made there by the MM. HENRY, who are connected with the observatory. The headquarters of this International undertaking are also at the Paris Observatory, and Admiral MOUCHEZ is the President of the Permanent Committee of the Congress.

The accompanying cut represents the Meridian Circle which was presented to the observatory in 1878 by M. BISCHOFFSHEIM (founder of the great observatory of Nice), and is especially interesting as showing the designs adopted by its distinguished constructor, M. EICHENS. The instrument is about of the same size as the REPSOLD Meridian-Circle of the Lick Observatory, from which it differs, however, in many respects.

A list of the principal instruments would be incomplete without a mention of the equatorial coudé, a new form of mounting invented by M. LOEWY, in which the eye-piece of the telescope (and therefore the observer) remains always in one place, while the image of the star under examination is brought to this eyepiece by reflections from two plane mirrors. The ingenious and important inventions of M. LOEWY for determining the principal constants of astronomy-refraction, aberration, flexure, etc.can only be mentioned here. In fact it is impossible in this place to give any account of the work of the observatory, and it can only be said that it employs a very large number of astronomers and computers who are organized into various departments, with separate chiefs. The principal departments are-that of meridian observations (which has just completed the re-observation of all the stars of LALANDE's catalogue, some 50,000 in number)— that of equatorial observations-of astronomical photographyof the time-service-of calculations-of the library and museum -and (until lately) of a school of practical astronomy. The museum is a collection of great interest and of historical importance and contains authentic portraits of the great astronomers as well as some of the instruments which have had a great historylike the sextant used by LACAILLE at the Cape of Good Hope

to construct his catalogue of southern stars (1750), the muralquadrant of LALANDE (1774-1834),* etc., etc.

It is not the object of this note to do more than to give the briefest description of the observatory at Paris, which has had so brilliant a history. For a fuller account of its work reference is made to the Astronomie Pratique of the AUDRÉ and RAYET and to the Annual Reports of the Director, Admiral MOUCHEZ.

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OF APRIL, 1893.

EXPEDITION TO CHILE.

E. S. H.

LICK OBSERVATORY

The line of totality of the solar eclipse of April, 1893, passes across South America from Chile to Brazil and cuts the African coast in Senegambia. It is probable that parties from the United States and from Europe will establish stations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil and in Africa. The Harvard College Observatory has a station in Peru and will probably observe the eclipse somewhere in South America. At the suggestion of Professor SCHAEBERLE plans were made for sending an observer from the Lick Observatory to the west coast of Chile, and the necessary expenses of such an observer have been provided for by the generous gift of a friend of the observatory. The expedition from the Lick Observatory will be entirely photographic and its object will be to secure pictures of the inner and outer corona on the general plan which was so successful at the eclipses of January and of December, 1889.

The instruments to be employed will be, the 61⁄2-inch equatorial, the 5-inch (40 foot focus) photo-heliograph objective, and a DALLMEYER portrait lens. Professor SCHAEBERLE may have the volunteer assistance of Mr. GALE, an amateur of Paddington, N. S. W. E. S. H.

EXHIBIT OF THE LICK OBSERVATORY AT THE WORLD'S FAIR IN CHICAGO.

The World's Fair Commission of Santa Clara County, California, has set apart the sum of $300 to aid the Lick Observatory in preparing an exhibit for the World's Fair in 1893. The observatory proposes to send a large model of the Summit of Mount Hamilton, showing the principal building to scale; as well as to * See LALANDE'S Astronomie, vol. ii.