Some notable additions have been made to the observatories of Europe in the quarter of a century just passed. As the climate of Pulkowa was considered to be unfavourable for observation, through the influence of Oscar Backlund, who was its director for 21 years, branch establishments were founded—one at Odessa in 1898 for the astronomy of position; another at Nicolaieff, 75m. from Odessa, in 1912, for a similar purpose; and a third at Simeis in the Crimea. Backlund died in 1916, but in the last few years of his life the Russian Government sanctioned the expenditure of large sums of money for the purpose of procuring astrophysical and astrophotographic equipment for the new observatories, and recently (1926) a reflecting telescope with a mirror one metre in diameter and a photographic refractor with an objective of 41 in. aperture have been supplied to the Simeis observatory by a British firm. The observatory of Geneva, which is of very early foundation (1772), now possesses a reflector with mirror, one metre in diameter, the gift of a member of the staff. The Astro physical observatory at Potsdam, that dates from the year 1878, was enriched by the addition of a 32in. photographic refractor in the year 1899, and in 1921 a tower-telescope was erected in its grounds as a tribute to Prof. Einstein. The building is modern and original (see Plate). The primary purpose of the apparatus is to test the Einstein theory, so far as it refers to the shift of spectral lines, but it will be available for other astrophysical work.
A tower-telescope has been set up at the Royal Astrophysical observatory at Arcetri (Florence) designed for solar observation. A new object-glass was supplied to this institution in 1925 by the German Government, by way of war reparation, The Italian Royal Observatory at Milan, with which the name of Schiaparelli is associated, has been removed and improved by the help of resources similarly supplied. Another observatory that has been largely developed in this century is that of the City of Hamburg, at Bergedorf. Citizens supplied funds for buying instruments for
the local school of navigation which already had a small equip ment, and so the Hamburg municipal observatory developed and had a long and honourable career. In 1906 it was decided to transfer it to Bergedorf, about 5m. south of Hamburg, and the new establishment was completed in the course of the year 1909. This observatory continues to do star-cataloguing work and sup plies a time service for the city, but it is well equipped for astronomical observations of other kinds. It has a reflector, one metre in aperture, and a large twin telescope for photography. This observatory has been specially successful lately in the dis covery of comets.
In Great Britain, the Norman Lockyer observatory, originally the Hill observatory, is on the top of Salcombe Hill near Sid mouth, Devon. This observatory, at a height of 56oft., contains instruments from the observatory of the late Dr. Frank McClean at Rusthall, near Tunbridge Wells, and others used at the Gov ernment establishment formerly at South Kensington. The spec troscopic classification of stars and the determination of their parallaxes from examination of their spectra, are items in its programme.
Mention has not been made of all the observatories of past and present importance. Other countries of Europe besides those named have observatories in active work. The Society of Jesus has establishments in various parts of the world devoted to seismology, meteorology, and in some cases to astronomy. The Nizamiah observatory, Hyderabad, which is taking a share in the International Astrographic Catalogue is a striking instance of an observatory devoted to a special line of work.
(H. P. H.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Dreyer, Tycho Brahe (189o). See also Mem. Roy. Ast. Soc. vol. XIII (1843) ; Winterhalter, Washington Observations (1885), Appendix 1; E. S. Holden, The Lick Observatory (1888); Stroobant and others, Les Observatoires Astronomiques 19o7) ; Annual Notes in the Mon. Not. R.A.S., and in the Observatory ; Magazine.