During 1870 a new observatory has been established by the government of the Argentine Republic in South America, to be erected at Cordova, about the middle of the continent, on the margin of the Pampas in latitude 31.5 degrees south.
Dr B A Gould has been invited to organise it and is going
out for the special purpose of extending through the southern hemisphere the
system of zones, which Besel and Argelander have already carried from the north
pole as far as 30 degrees south. He hopes to be obtain some photometric
determinations of the principal southern stars. The undertaking has been
instituted and carried out entirely by the Government of the Argentine
Republic, at the instance of the President, M Sarmiento, and of Dr Avellanela,
the Minister of Public Instruction; but the various scientific institutions of
the United States have aided the expedition greatly by loans of important and
valuable instruments; and Dr Gould expresses his obligation to the Coast
Survey, the “American Nautical Almanac,” the Washington Observatory, The
National Academy of Sciences of Boston, all of which have afforded valuable
assistance in providing him with instruments an equipment.
This will be the second public observatory in South America,
that at Santiago, in Chile having been founded in 1851. Efforts are making to
provide means for obtaining photographic impressions of some of the more
prominent southern clusters of stars, analogous to those taken in the northern
hemisphere by Mr Rutherford; but the success of these efforts is still
uncertain.
Dr Gould estimates that three years will suffice to complete
the southern zones within the limits which has assigned himself. We look
forward with the moist sanguine hopes to the results of Dr Gould’s labours. In
time we may hope to be almost as civilised as the Argentine Republic- almost as
anxious to spread the knowledge of nature.
www.theramblingastronomer.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment