NEW 61-INCH TELESCOPE INSTALLED AT OAK RIDGE

A new 61 inch reflecting telescope is being installed at the Oak Ridge observatory which, when assembled, will be the fifth largest in the world. At present the mirror, which has just been silvered, is being put into place. The adjustments of the telescope will take one month and results are expected to be obtained by early spring.

The telescope, which cost $200,000, is one inch larger than that at Bloemfontein, South Africa, where Harvard has an observing station to cover the southern sky. This African telescope will be used to check results with the Oak Ridge station, also, as their fields overlap.

The finest photograph of a meteor ever taken at Oak Ridge was obtained recently by one of the patrol cameras. The observatory is making an extensive study of this form of star, and has a collection of over 500 plates. Going at a rate of 40 miles a second, the meteor was brighter than Venus, an Observatory authority declared, casting a bright yellow light almost as strong as a flashlight held-at a distance of a few yards.

The meteor was unusual in that it was composed of more than one body, all of which moved together, burning in the atmosphere from a height of 100 miles above the earth until it became extinguished at an altitude of 30 miles.