The Harvard Observatory.

Of all Harvard's institutions the observatory is perhaps least appreciated by undergraduates. It is through the praise of the outside world that we are reminded of the excellent work done in that sequestered tower. Following are some interesting items which appeared in a recent number of the "Nation':

"In the forty-first annual report of the director of Harvard College Observatory, laid before the board of trustees early in the present year, Prof. Pickering states that the munificence of the late Robert Treat Paine has now begun to provide the encouragement which he desired to give to the science of astronomy; the sum of $165,000, comprising about half of his bequest, having been received by the treasurer of the University, and the income therefrom being already available for the support of work at the Observatory. The addition of this fund to those previously available raises the endowment of the institution to a little short of $400,000. This recent increase in the means of the Observatory, Prof. Pickering states, will ultimately permit a corresponding extension in its work, but for the moment will largely be required for the publication of observations already make, and for effecting permanent improvements in the condition of the institution which have long been urgently needed. The remounting of the large telescope, and a new Observatory building, are in view, as well as a rather ambitions plan for the extension of astronomical investigation, which contemplates the support of researches conducted at other places by funds administered at Harvard. During the past year the Observatory has lost the services of Prof. Rogers, for a long series of year an indefatigable worker with the meridian circle. As a memorial to the late Prof. Henry Draper, the study of the photography of stellar spectra undertaken by him is now, through the liberality of Mrs. Draper, being prosecuted on a scale appropriate to the advance in this department of science, and forms an important extension of the work of the Observatory. The meridian photometer has been kept in active service throughout the year, and leaves little to be desired as a means of measuring the brightness of stars down to the ninth magnitude. The rapidity of the observations with this instrument is such that as many as 179 stars have been measured by a single observer in one evening. Various tests have been applied to detect the presence of systematic errors in this instrument, and extended comparisons of the results with similar work conducted elsewhere have been instituted. We have already adverted to the research in stellar photography conducted by Prof. Pickering, with the and of the Bache fund, with such promising results. In order to facilitate a more careful study of the spectra of the brightest stars, Mrs. Draper has loaned to the Observatory the eleven-inch photographic telescope employed by her husband, and it has been mounted with two prisms in front of the object-glass, one of which has a clear aperture of eleven inches square and an angle of nearly fifteen degrees, forming thus the most powerful equipment for stellar spectroscopy in existence."