We learn from the Melbourne Argus of the 23d of February that the new observatory, for which a grant of £ 4500 was recently voted by the Colonial Legislature, is nearly completed, and the colonists are proud of it, as they may well be.
The transit instrument will be second only to those at
Greenwich and Capetown; and Airy's zenith sector is at present in constant use
in connexion with the survey of the colony, and the determination of the
boundary between Victoria and South Australia.
It has been
determined to provide this observatory with a telescope of much greater optical
power than any previously used in the southern hemisphere, to be employed
chiefly in observations of nebulæ; and the advice of the Royal Society was
desired as to the best instrument to be used.
We believe that it
has been decided that a reflector as large as, and similar to Lord Rosse’s, to
be constructed in this country, should be employed. Should this course, which
really seems rather a hazardous one, be adopted, we trust that the effects of
the long voyage, and extremes of temperature, and loss of figure and polish,
may all be avoided, and that the colony may reap all the laurels it deserves.
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