PREFACE

The Handbook for 1943 is the thirty-fifth issue. The times of moonrise and moonset, first printed last year, are now extended to include five latitudes, namely, 40, 45, 50, 52 and 54 degrees. The page of meteorological information for places in Europe and Asia is not given this year; but the tables of lunar occultations for Canadian stations appear again. Messier’s catalogue has been replaced by three tables giving more complete information about clusters, galactic nebulae, and extra-galactic nebulae.

Four circular star maps, 9 inches in diameter at a price of one cent each, and a set of four maps, plotted on equatorial coordinates, bound in a cover at a price of ten cents, are obtainable from the Director of University Extension, University of Toronto. For fuller information reference may be made to Norton’s Star Atlas and Reference Handbook (Gall and Inglis, eighth edition (1942), price 12s 6d).

Throughout this Handbook distances are based on the standard value 8".80 for the sun’s parallax, rather than the new value 8".790 as determined by Dr. H. Spencer Jones, the Astronomer Royal. The predictions of the minima of Algol are based on a period of 2.867318 days by W. M. Smart, and from a minimum at J.D. 2,429,234.6859 observed by J. S. Hall.

To the Assistant Editor, Dr. F. S. Hogg, the credit for preparing this volume is chiefly due; but sincere thanks are tendered to all those whose names are mentioned in the book and especially to Miss Ruth J. Northcott of the staff of the David Dunlap Observatory.         C.A. Chant

David Dunlap Observatory,
Richmond Hill, Ont., December 1942.