NOTICES FROM THE LICK OBSERVATORY.* PREPARED BY MEMBERS OF THE STAFF. DISCOVERY OF A NEW ASTEROID, 1899 FD, WITH THE CROSSLEY REFLECTOR. The region of HINDS's variable nebula in Taurus was photographed with the Crossley reflector on the night of December 6, 1899, with an exposure of four hours, and on the negative, when it was examined the next morning, there was found a very fine faint line, which was recognized as the trail of an asteroid. Owing to a defect in the film, the position of the asteroid could not be determined accurately on the first plate, and another photograph was made on the night of December 9th. The next observation was made on December 26th. From these two positions, circular elements were computed by Mr. CODDINGTON. These elements represented the motion of the asteroid with much accuracy, owing to the fact, subsequently discovered, that the eccentricity of the orbit is very small. As the telescope was constantly in use for other purposes, a third observation was not obtained until the night of January 19th. On this night the 36-inch refractor was available for visual observations, and a search was made for the asteroid with the aid of the photograph just taken. It was, however, not certainly visible, and its magnitude was taken to be 17. The following positions were deduced from measurements of the plates by Mr. CODDINGTON and Mr. PALMER: Jan. 19. 7 53 35 3 54 49.32 +19 15 30 .7 From these observations the following elliptic elements were computed by Mr. PALMER, and independently by Mr. PHIPPS, of the Students' Observatory, Berkeley. * Lick Astronomical Department of the University of California. The asteroid is the tainty, on account of the small eccentricity. smallest that has yet been found. NEW DOUBLE STARS. My search for new double stars has resulted in the finding of thirty-seven new pairs (all under 5") in the first four months. of the present year. Twenty-five of these have distances of less than 2", thirteen are under 1", and five of them are very close. In general the 12-inch has been used for this work, but on two or three nights when the seeing did not admit of the use of high powers, some sweeping was done with the 36-inch tele scope. A few of the pairs found possess sufficient interest to warrant their publication here in advance of the complete list. These Found with the 12-inch on March 14th, while looking for the following star: A. G. Cambridge 3025. The close pair was found with the 12-inch on February 15th, and the third star added with the large telescope. This star is interesting mainly because it has not been seen before as a double star. This may be due merely to chance, or the pair may have been much closer in the early part of the century when this region of the sky was systematically examined by STRUVE and HERSCHEL. Found with the 36-inch on March 30th, while measuring B 794, which is 2° farther north. R. G. AITKEN. A REMARKABLE METEOR TRAIN. A remarkable meteor train was observed at Mt. Hamilton on the night of March 29th. The meteor itself was seen in the east at about 955" by two of the ladies at the Lick Observatory, who |