NOTES FROM

THE DOMINION ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY

VICTORIA, B.C.

AN INTERESTING DOUBLE

In the course of the radial velocity programme of this observatory, the star Boss 6158, R.A. 23 54.4, Dec. + 33 11 (1900), was observed. This star is a double, No. 12675, Burnham's General Catalogue, the separation of the components being now in the neighborhood of 2". They are of equal magnitude, visual 6.58, photographic 7.08, and of the same type, about F5. Burnham plots their relative motion, which he states is "apparently rectilinear".

It seemed to me, when they are so close together in the sky and of equal magnitude and type, there is a high probability that they are physically connected. If, in addition, their radial velocities proved to be nearly the same, this probability would be greatly strengthened.

It will be of interest, as showing the actual performance of the new installation, to give the particulars of observation and measurement. Spectra of each have been obtained on five nights with the single prism form of the spectrograph, linear dispersion 35A' per mm. at Hy. The spectra are all well exposed, although time given each star of 7.08 phot'c mag. was 19.6 minutes. The plates were measured on the Hartmann Spectro-Comparator with the following values of the velocity:

the average exposure

The probable error of a single plate, so far as it means anything from so few observations, is± 0.85 km. per second.

The difference in velocity is of the order to be expected if the star were a binary, and this, taken in conjunction with the small separation, the equality in magnitude and type, make a chain of coincidences improbable on any supposition except that the stars are physically connected.

J. S. PLASKETT.

DOMINION ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY,

VICTORIA, B.C., Jan. 15, 1919.

NOTES FROM THE METEOROLOGICAL SERVICE

SUMMARY REPORT OF THE WEATHER IN CANADA

JANUARY, 1919

Temperature- The mean temperature was above average throughout the Dominion, with the greatest departure from normal-from 18° to 20°-in Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan. To the eastward this wide positive departure diminished gradually to between 9° and 6° in Ontario, and to about 3o in the Maritime Provinces. To the westward the decrease in positive departure was more rapid, and the interior plateaus of British Columbia were but 5° above average, and the coast line about 3° above.

Precipitation-Precipitation was very generally deficient, except near the British Columbia Coast, where there were many heavy rainstorms, and in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where there was a very heavy snowstorm on the 24th. In Nova Scotia and Southern New Brunswick the precipitation was nearly equally divided between rain and snow. In Northern New Brunswick and Eastern Quebec it was almost wholly in the form of snow, while in Western Quebec and Southern Ontario it was quite light, and part snow and part rain. In the Western Provinces a few light snowfalls occurred in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, but over a large part of Alberta there was practically little, if any, either snow or rain. The rainfall in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia and Vancouver Island was very heavy, but in the Upper Mainland, the precipitation, mostly as snow, was not excessive.