NEW SPECTROSCOPIC BINARIES.

The following forty-two binaries have recently been discovered during the progress of the spectrographic work at the Lick Observatory and at the observatory of the D. O. Mills Expedition, Santiago, Chile. They are taken from Lick Observatory Bulletins, Nos. 173, 177, and from a Bulletin soon to be issued by Dr. MOORE:—

APPOINTMENT OF DR. ALBRECHT.

Dr. SEBASTIAN ALBRECHT, Fellow in the Lick Observatory, University of California, 1903-06, Assistant 1906-08, and Assistant Astronomer 1908-, has been appointed First Astronomer in the Argentine National Observatory at Cordoba. Dr. PERRINE, Director of the Cordoba Observatory, is to be congratulated upon securing the services of Dr. ALBRECHT, whose departure from Mount Hamilton will be regretted by all, for both scientific and personal reasons. Dr. ALBRECHT expects to leave Mount Hamilton on or shortly after July 1st. W. W. CAMPBELL.

GENERAL NOTES.

Ephemeris of Halley's Comet.

(Continued from preceding number.)

This ephemeris was computed by Mr. F. E. SEAGRAVE (Observatory, March, 1910).

Transit of Halley's Comet.-Mr. C. S. TAYLOR, in Nature, February 17th, points out that the altitude of the Sun at the North Cape on May 18th, the day of the transit of Halley's Comet, will be 1° 9′, and the contact does not take place till 16h 6m local time. As the altitude of the Cape is 968 feet, there would be a fair chance of seeing whatever there may be

to see.

Recent calculations indicate that this transit will be invisible in Europe and the greater part of America. The calculated times of ingress and egress for the Pacific Slope are follows:

First contact, May 18, 6h 22m Pacific Standard Time

in position angle 264°

Last contact. May 18, 7h 22m Pacific Standard Time
in position angle 92°

More accurate values of the elements may, however, change these values considerably.

The daily press records the departure for Honolulu of Mr. ELLERMAN, of the Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, under the auspices of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, aided by a grant from the National Academy of Sciences. Mr. ELLERMAN is equipped with a 61⁄2-inch equatorial telescope and mounting loaned by the Lick Observatory, and subsidiary apparatus for cometary photography, and his purpose is to fill the observational gap of nearly one third of the Earth's circumference covered by the Pacific Ocean and make possible the securing of as continuous as possible a series of photographs of this comet at the time of its maximum brightness.

Professor KR. BIRKELAND, of the Universitets Fysiske Institut, Christiania, will proceed to Kaafjord in Finmarken at the northern end of Norway, in order to take magnetic and atmospheric observations during the period from May 7th to June 1st, in connection with the transit of Halley's Comet across the Sun's disk and the possible passage of the Earth through the tail. Mr. O. KROGNESS will act as his assistant.

The Oxford University authorities have decided to confer the honorary degree of doctor of science on Mr. PHILIP HERBERT COWELL, F. R. S., chief assistant, and Mr. ANDREW CLAUDE DE LA CHEROIS CROM MELIN, assistant at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in recognition of their conjoint successful labors in the exact determination of the reappearance of Halley's Comet.-London Standard.

Comet a 1910.-Comet a 1910 is now (April 15th) within telescopic reach in the morning sky. It is not brighter than the twelfth magnitude, and a very indistinct and difficult object. Plates taken with the Crossley Reflector on April 11th and 12th show a head between one and two minutes of arc in diameter, with a slight condensation at the center, but with no trace of a tail. H. D. CURTIS.

Notes from "Science."-The council of the Royal Astronomical Society has awarded the gold medal of the society to Professor F. KÜSTNER, director of the University Observatory of Bonn.

Lord RAYLEIGH has been elected a foreign associate of the Paris Academy of Sciences in succession to the late SIMON NEWCOMB.

Sir WILLIAM HUGGINS, F. R. S., the eminent astronomer, celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday on February 7th at his residence at Tulsehill, England.

Dr. HENRY WILDE has offered the University of Oxford the sum of £600 for the foundation of an annual lecture on astronomy and terrestrial magnetism, in honor and memory of EDMUND HALLEY, some time Savilian professor of geometry.

Sir CHARLES TODD, F. R. S., well known for his astronomical and meteorological work in South Australia, has died at the age of eighty-three years.

Professor W. J. HUSSEY, director of the observatory of the University of Michigan, announces that the observatory is about to receive gifts aggregating $20,000 from Mr. R. P. LAMONT, of Chicago, a member of the class of '91. One gift, representing $17,000, is a deed of land directly east of the observatory, bordering upon the arboretum. This should always insure a sky line free from smoke and dust. Mr. LAMONT has also furnished funds to start the construction of a 24-inch refracting telescope.

The Rev. CARR WALLER PRITCHETT, formerly director of the Morrison Astronomical Observatory and president of Central College and Pritchett College, Missouri, died on March 18th, at the age of eighty-seven years.

A friend of Allegheny Observatory has endowed a fellowship in astronomy at that institution. The fellow is to receive $500.

The Silliman Lectures, 1909-1910.-The Silliman Lectures in Yale University for the academic year 1909-1910 were delivered by Director W. W. CAMPBELL, in the interval January 24 to February 2, 1910. The subjects of the eight lectures were as below, the general subject being "Stellar Motions," with special reference to motions determined by means of the spectroscope:

I. Historical and Introductory.-Theory of spectroscopic measurement of the radial velocities of celestial bodies. Visual applications of the method. Types of spectra to be dealt with.