New Mexican Observatory

Abstract

A NEW national observatory which will house a 24-30 in. Schmidt photographic telescope, claimed to be the most powerful in the tropics, is being built in Mexico. Other equipment will include a 12-in. reflector for visual observations and two or three cameras of the Ross type with apertures of 3-5 inches. The observatory will be situated on a hill ten miles south of the city of Puebla, which is eighty miles east of Mexico City. This is a very favourable location in the southern hemisphere for observation. The latitude of the observatory is 19° N., which means that the sky can be seen to within 19° of the south celestial pole. The site is nearly eight thousand feet above sea-level. The work of the observatory will be closely linked with that of the Harvard College Observatory and of the Mexican Observatory at Tacubaya. It will consist largely of observations of southern variables and of star counts, colours, magnitudes and spectra for the southern hemisphere. The director of the observatory will be Mr. L. E. Erro, assisted by Dr. Carlos Graef, both of whom have already spent a year working at Harvard College Observatory.