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Article
Early Science in Oxford
SOME six or seven years ago Mr. Gunther began to examine the old instruments of various kinds, most of which had until then been utterly neglected or forgotten, preserved in the Colleges and Museums at Oxford....
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Article
Indian Astronomical Instruments1
INDIAN astronomy, handed down to us in a series of text-books, the Siddhntas, of which the earliest dates from about A.D. 400, is an offspring of Greek astronomy. Via Babylon and the Greek kingdom of Bactria (...
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William Herschel and his “Desertion”
IN the valuable discourse on Sir William Herschel delivered at the Royal Institution on April 26 by Sir George Darwin, the well-known story of the desertion of the young bandsman from the Hanoverian Guards has...
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Article
The Tercentenary of the Telescope
TPHE year 1609 is one of the most remarkable epochs in the history of astronomy. In the summer of that year Kepler's book on the motion of Mars was published, in which for the first time the actual orbit of a ...
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Article
An Alleged Originator of the Theory of Atoms
MOCHUS OF SIDON, the alleged precursor of Demokritus, is not so unknown to historians of science as Prof. See seems to think (February 13, p. 345), nor is Strabo the only ancient writer who alludes to him; see...
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The Date of Easter
THAT the formula of Gauss for finding the date of Easter fails in certain cases, of which the year 1954 is one, was pointed out by Gauss in his original paper in the Monatliche Correspondenz (vol. ii., p. 229), w...
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Tycho Brahe's Observatory
IT was mentioned in a recent article on the tercentenary of Tycho Brahe's death (p. 6) that an account of excavations made in the island of Hveen has been published by Prof. Charlier, of Lund2 As Tycho's observat...
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The Tercentenary of Tycho Brahe's Death
ON October 24, 300 years had elapsed since Tycho Brahe died at Prague, expressing in his last moments the hope that he might not appear to have lived in vain. When saying this he doubtless did not fear that th...
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Wilhelm Olbers, sein Leben und seine Werke
THE first volume of this work, published in 1894 (NATURE, li. p. 74), contained the collected scientific papers of Olbers; the present one gives the first half (1802–19) of his correspondence with Gauss. These...
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Œuvres complètes de Christiaan Huygens publiées par la Société Hollandaise des Sciences
EXACTLY a year after the seventh volume of Huygens' correspondence the eighth one has made its appearance. As it embraces nine years, and Huygens only lived ten years longer, we may expect that the ninth volum...
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Œuvres complètes de Christiaan Huygens publiées par la Société Hollandaise des Sciences Tome Septième Correspondence 1670–1675
SEVEN large quarto volumes of letters to and from Huygens have now been published; but the completion of the work is not yet in sight, as the volume before us only reaches the end of the year 1675, and Huygens...
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Astronomical Spectroscopy
THE German original of this work appeared in the autumn of 1890, and was doubtless eagerly welcomed by many who had felt the want of a handbook of spectroscopy which gave a tolerably detailed account of the va...
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A Rare Phenomenon
THE narrow luminous band described in NATURE, September 24 (p. 494) was seen here on Friday, the 11th inst., between 8.30 and 9 p.m., at the same time at which it was seen by Mr. Wilson in the county Westmeath...
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The Astronomical Observatory of Pekin
IN your number of November 8 (p. 46), you gave an account of a lecture by Mr. S. M. Russell, of Pekin, on the instruments in the old Observatory there. May I mention that the late Alex. Wylie, about nine or te...
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Article
H. C. F. C. Schjellerup
THE Danish astronomer Prof. Hans Carl Frederick Christian Schjellerup died at the Copenhagen Observatory on November 13 after a prolonged illness. He was born on February 8, 1827, at Odense, where his father w...
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Article
THE TRANSIT OF VENUS
A VERY fair amount of success appears from the telegrams to have attended the British expeditions for the observation of the late transit of Venus. In Jamaica Dr. Copeland and his colleague secured all four co...
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Article
Astronomical Subject-Index
I AM preparing for publication, by the Royal Dublin Society, a review of the progress of astronomy during the present year, consisting of a classified index catalogue of books, memoirs, and notes on astronomic...
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Article
Missing Nebulæ
IN the note on missing nebulæ in NATURE, vol. xix. p. 221, I find the nebulæ G. C. 132, 4570, and 5051 mentioned together with the Merope nebula as being diffused objects which are “overlooked in very large te...
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Early Observations of the Solar Corona
THE “Astronomical Column” in NATURE, vol. xvi. p. 255, has drawn attention to an observation of the solar corona by Clavius during the total eclipse of 1605. This is, however, by no means the earliest known ca...
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Tycho Brahe's Portrait
IN NATURE (vol. xv., p. 406) is published a copy of a portrait of Tycho Brahe in the possession of Dr. Crompton of Manchester. Although it seems, from the inscription in the corner, that the portrait is a cont...
