The Observatory.

During the past year the Observatory has suffered a severe loss in the death of one of its oldest friends, the last survivor of those who took an earnest part in its establishment. The active aid rendered by Mr. J. T. Bowditch in every attempt to extend the work of the Observatory has done much to bring it to its present condition.

The Observatory instruments were in active use during the past year; the east equatorial instrument has been remodeled, and supplied with some additional equipments. All this work was under the direction of Professor Rogers, as also the reduction of the observations made with the meridian circle instrument. The new twelve inch horizontal telescope was completed in season to measure the light of all stars brighter than the fourteenth magnitude. It is now being used by Mr. G. E. Hale in an investigation of the solar spectrum. By the continued aid of Mrs. Draper, with that of the Boyden fund, an expedition has been sent to Peru, and will thus enable some of the most important investigations made here to be extended so as to include the southern stars. The plan of maintaining two stations, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern will permit all researches to include the whole sky, and thus give them a completeness unattainable at any single station. A second expedition to Southern California furnishes a mountain station under climatic conditions much superior to those of the eastern portion of the United States, and promises to be a satisfactory solution of the problem contemplated by Mr. Boyden in his will, namely, the study of the solar eclipse. All these plans greatly increase the work accomplished by the observatory and yet, notwithstanding the large addition to its resources, the entire income has been expended in nearly all of its departments.