Saturn's Ninth Satellite

Abstract

ON Saturday last, March 18, the astronomical world, somewhat recovering from the excitement incident to the discovery of the remarkable asteroid now named Eros, was again pleasantly surprised by the news of another “find,” distributed by telegram from the Central Astronomical Bureau at Kiel. This time it is the planet Saturn which supplies the feature of interest, in that an addition to its already numerous family of attendant satellites has been discovered by Prof. William H. Pickering, assistant astronomer at Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona. The name of this station will be familiar to all in connection with the many notable observations of the planet Mars which have been made there by Mr. Lowell, its director, with the 24-inch refractor. Most of this work is so delicate as to need the best conditions for seeing, and it is only the extremely favourable situation of this observatory which has rendered them possible. This is probably to be attributed to the extreme transparency of the air consequent on the high altitude above the sea-level.