Annual Report of Observatory

The sixteenth annual report of the director of the Astronomical Observatory which has just been issued, contains as usual, the financial statement of the Observatory, and a report of the work during the year ending September 30, 1905.

Professor Pickering, in his introductory address to the President, makes an urgent appeal for money, and details some of the pressing needs of the Observatory, among which is the demand for funds for the care of the collection of 182,277 photographs. This collection is unique and gives the only existing history of the stellar universe for the past 20 years. Fire-proof buildings are especially needed for the library, photographic laboratory and the workshop. The total number of volumes and of pamphlets in the library on October 1, 1905, was 11,459 and 24,474, respectively.

In addition the report contains a detailed statement of the work carried on this past year in Cambridge, and at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory. The average of the highest altitudes obtained in each of the kite-flights, made in confection with observations taken at the latter station was 6,940 feet above sea-level, and the maximum in any flight 11,180 feet.

Last summer an expedition was sent to the eastern Atlantic to explore the atmosphere above the northeast trade-wind, and during the total solar eclipse of August 30 meteorological observations were made at Burgos, Spain.