News from the Observatory.

For several years the Harvard Observatory has been engaged in photographing, both in Cambridge and Peru, the spectra of all stars above the eighth magnitude. Professor Pickering hoped when this work was undertaken that a meteor would sometime cross the field of one of the photographic prisms while taking the spectra, but this did not occur until recently.

The Observatory now possesses an excellent photograph of a meteoric spectrum, the first that is known to have been obtained. The photograph is of considerable importance, for although the composition of the meteorites that have fallen to the earth is well known, this spectrum will determine the condition of shooting-stars and meteorites before the great heat engendered in passing through the atmosphere has had time to consume the more fusible components. The deductions from this meteoric spectrum will be announced in full in the next bulletin of the Observatory.