Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Volume 13

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Astronomical Society of the Pacific., 1901
 

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Page 79 - ... them by the Secretary of the Navy or are otherwise imposed upon them. The board of visitors shall make an annual visitation to the Observatory at a date to be determined by the Secretary of the Navy, and may make such other visitations not exceeding two in number annually by the full board or by a duly appointed committee as may be deemed needful or expedient by a majority of the board.
Page 80 - ... must also produce or tend to produce a cold-air cyclone. Since the heat of day produces or tends to produce a warm-air cyclone, there must tend to occur each day two minima of pressure, one near the coldest part of the day, and another near the warmest...
Page 109 - ... largely on the data. It may, therefore, well be that the small excess of 45 found within this strip is due to the fact that more stars were observed and investigated, and, therefore, more proper motions found. Besides this, some uncertainty may exist as to the reality of the minuter proper motions. The conclusion is interesting and important. If we should blot out from the sky all the stars having no proper motion large enough to be detected, we should find remaining stars of all magnitudes ;...
Page 54 - ... brighter than the third magnitude is 26 km. ; of 112 stars between the third and fourth magnitude, 32 km.; and of 121 stars fainter than the fourth magnitude, 39 km. The progression in these results is very pronounced, and I think we are justified in drawing the important conclusion that, on the average, the faint stars of the system are moving more rapidly than the bright stars. This interesting indication should be confirmed or disproved by the use of a much greater number of stars. The proper...
Page 100 - But even in the case of periodic stars, it is found that the period is more or less variable, and, in special cases, the amount of the variation is such that it cannot always be said whether we should call a star periodic or irregular. The periodic stars show wide differences, both in the length of the period and in the character of the changes they undergo. In most cases they rapidly increase in brightness during a few days or weeks, and then slowly fade away, to go through the same changes again...
Page 79 - When an appointment or detail is to be made to the office of astronomical director, director of the Nautical Almanac, astronomer, or assistant astronomer, the board of visitors may recommend to the Secretary of the Navy a suitable person to fill such office, but such recommendation shall be determined only by a majority vote of the members present at a regularly called meeting of the board held in the city of Washington. The Superintendent of the Naval Observatory shall be, until further legislation...
Page 143 - Evidence in support of the following theses was published by the present writer in 1866-7. I. — In those parts of the zone of minor planets where a simple relation of commensurability would obtain between the period of an asteroid and that of Jupiter, the original planetary matter was liable to great perturbation. The result of such disturbance by the powerful mass of Jupiter was the necessary formation of gaps in the asteroid zone.
Page 79 - ... which its scientific work is prosecuted. The Board of Visitors shall prepare and submit to the Secretary of the Navy regulations prescribing the scope of the astronomical and other researches of the Naval Observatory and the duties of its staff with reference thereto.
Page 243 - The official Board of Visitors established by Congress and appointed in 1901 expressed its conclusion that the official head of the observatory should be an eminent astronomer appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, holding his place by a tenure at least as permanent as that of the Superintendent of the Coast Survey or the head of the Geological Survey, and not merely by a detail of two or three years
Page 141 - The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.

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