THE OBSERVER’S HANDBOOK for 1969 is the 61st edition. The time zone map has been revised and supplied courtesy of the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources. A table giving the longitude of the central meridian of Mars has been added. Changes have been made in the table of Saturn’s satellites, so that it will be more useful to observers. The times of sunrise and sunset, and of twilight, are again for the current year. The magnitudes in the table of Messier’s objects have been revised.

During 1969 the range of the moon’s declination reaches its greatest ue, so that the moon occults stars of the Pleiades. Observers in Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver may find that the stars occulted by the moon may not eb in strict chronological order (see p. 64).

Cordial thanks are offered to all individuals who assisted in the preparation of this edition, to those whose names appear in the various sections and to Barbara Gaizauskas, Helen Sawyer Hogg, Ronald Nikaido, John Percy, Maude Town and Isabel Williamson. Special thanks are extended to Margaret W. Mayall, Director of the A.A.V.S.O., for the predictions of Algol and the variable stars, and to Gordon E. Taylor and the British Astronomical Association for the prediction of planetary appulses and occultations.

My deep indebtedness to the British Nautical Almanac Office and to the American Ephemeris is gratefully acknowledged.

Ruth J. Northcott