Smithsonian miscellaneous collections

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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS.

263

TELEGRAPHIC ANNOUNCEMENTS OF ASTRONOMICAL DISCOVERIES.

The

Smithsonian Institution has completed arrangements for the immediate transmission by telegraph between Europe and America of accounts of astronomicaldiscoveries,which,for thepurpose of co-opera- tiveobservation, require immediate announcemeut.

Among

suchdiscoveriesare thoseof planets aud comets, or of bodies which are generallyso faint as not to be seen, exceptthroughthetele^

scope; andwhich being in motion their place in the heavens must be

made known

to the distant observer before they so far change their position asnot tobereadilyfound. For this purpose'the ordinary mail conveyance, requiringat leasttendays,istoo slow, since in thattimethe body will have so far changed its position as not to be found, except withgreatdifficulty; andthischangewillbecomethegreaterifthebody

isaveryfaintone, for in that caseit could only be discoveredon a night free

from

moonlight, whichof necessity, inten ortwelvedays, must be followed

by

nightson whichtheskyis illuminatedbythe moon, andall

attempts to discover the object would have to be postponed until the recurrence ofadarknight. Indeed,even thenthesearchoftenprovesin vain; and it is not,'in some cases, untilafterasetof approximateele-

ments are calculated aud transmitted, that the astronomers on the two sidesoftheAtlanticare able fully toco-operatewith eachother.

These dilBcultieswerediscussedby someof the principal astronomers ofEurope, and anapplication Avas

made

to the Smithsonian Institution, throughDr. C. H.F.Peters, ofHamiltonCollege,

Xew

York,toremove them,bytransmittingintelligenceimmediately throughtheAtlanticTele- graphCable. Forthispurposethe Institution applied to the 'NewYork, Newfoundland aud

London

Telegraph andto theWesternUnionTelegraph Companies to be allowed free transmissionof thiskind ofintelligence, and havereceivedthroughCteus

W.

Field, Esq.,andWii.Orton,Esq., with that liberalitywhich has always attendedapplicationsof a similar character

by

the Institution, the freeuseofallthelinesof thesecompanies fortheobjectin question.

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Similarprivilegeshave beengranted in Europefortransmittingthe in- telligencebetween someof theprincipalcentresofastronomical research inEurope andthe eastern ends of the Atlanticcables.

Itisnot intendedtorestrict the transmission ofintelligencetothedis- covery of planetsandcomets, butalsotoincludethatofany remarkable solar

phenomenon

-which

may

suddenly present itself in Europe, andof whichobservationsinAmerica

may

bepracticableforseveralhoursafter the sun hassettotheEuropeanobserver; alsothesuddenoutburstof a star like that inthe

"Crown

" in 1866, togetherwith unexpected showers ofshooting-stars, etc.

To

carry out the proposition the following arrangements have been adopted:

Centre ofcommunicationintheUnitedStates

—

1.

The

SmithsonianInstitution. JosephHenet, Director.

Centres of communicationinEurope

—

1. Greenwich Observatory. Sir

Geoege

B. Aiey, Astronomer Royal.

2. Paris Observatory.

M.

Leveeeiee, Director.

3. BerlinObservatory. Prof.

W.

Foeestee,Director.

4. ViennaObservatory,

Academy

ofSciences. Prof,

von

Lit- TEOW, Director.

II.

Telegramsreceived at the Smithsonian Institution

from

observers in the United States will be forwarded immediately

by

Atlantic Cable to Greenwich, Paris, Berlin, andVienna, andthence

by

telegraph to other observatories inEurope.

III.

Discoveries

made

in Europeof

new

comets, planets, etc., will be an- nounced without delay

from

Greenwich, Paris, Berlin, or Vienna by Atlantic Cable to the Smithsonian Institution, and thencebytelegraph toAmericanobservatoriesandtheAssociatedPress.

IV.

The

telegraphicdispatch annoimciugadiscoveryshould be as brief as

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possible, and after conference with astronomers thefollowingformhas beenagreedupon

:

Afterthe single

word "Planet"

(or

"Comet")

isgiven,

(1st) its Right Ascensionintime, hours and minutes only; next, separated

by

the

word

(2d) northor south, isgivenits (3d) Declinationtothenearestminute.

In the case of aplanet, in addition to the foregoing follows finally themagnitudeexpressed bythe nearest ordinal number. Inthe caseof a comet follows the

word

hriyht or_faint, and it is well to add the direction of motion, requiring at the utmost two words combined, of S.

W.

N.E.; andalso, ifrapid,thequantityofitsdailymotion,tlielatter to the nearest whole

number

in degrees. For example, the following dispatch, "Planet, twenty-three, thirty-five north twenty-one forty-six eleventh"wouldbeinterpreted:

A new

planetisdiscoveredin23''35™of rightascensionand4- 21°40^ ofdeclination; 11thmagnitude.

Or

a dispatchlikethefollowing^: "

Comet

twenty-twoforty-threenorth sixty-fivethirty-onebrightsoutheastthree"would announcethediscovery of abright comet in rightascension ==22''43™; declination-j- G.j°

ZV

\

the declination decreasing, rightascensionincreasing, dailymotionabout threedegrees.

The

precedingexamplescontain thegreatest

number

ofwordsrequired forany onedispatch, ifcomposedaccordingtothe ruleadopted. Usually theywill not exceedten. Sometinies, however, the dispatch thuscom- posedwould

become

equivocal, and ithastherefore been established as anadditional rule thatthe

number

expressing theminutes of rightascen- sionordeclination shall always be expressedinwords, even

when

zero occurs. Therefore, ^23'' 0™ should be written "twenty-three nought,"

while ''twentythree" will be understoodto

mean

20*^ S"". In asimilar

way

C*of Right Ascensionor 0°of decliilation are to be distinctly ex- pressed

by

^the

word

"noi<//Zt^."

The

rightascensionanddeclination in the dispatch will be understood to give the position (by proper motion approximately reduced) forthe midnight folloicing the date of the dispatch: Washington time for Americandiscoveries,GreenwichtimeforEuropean.

V.

Since, inconformity with the preceding article,only an approximate estimateof a later position,and not thatof the first observation itself, isgiven, the dispatchisnotto be consideredasadocument for deciding thequestion ofpriorityofdiscover}-.

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We

trustthe time isnot distantwhen, -svith the completion of a tele- graphiccable between Japan and the United States, thissystemwill be extended totheeasternpart ofAsia, and the astronomers

who

are

now

inprocess of educationintheUnitedStates, both from ChinaandJapan, will beable to participate inthe facilitiesthusoffered forco-operation intheadvanceof astronomy. In connectionwiththepublication ofthis circular, theNationalAcademj'ofSciences, atitsmeetingonthe 15th of April, adopted a resolution recommending that amateur astronomers devote a portion of their time to sweeping the skyforthediscovery of comets.

JOSEPH HENRY,

Secretary SmithsonianInstitution.

SmithsonianInstitution, Washington,D.C,May,1873,

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