ASTRONOMERS WILL MEET IN CAMBRIDGE FOR 1932 CONGRESS

Dr. Harlow Shapley, director of the Harvard Observatory, has announced that his invitation sent to the president of the International Astronomical Union. Sir Frank Dyson, Royal Astronomer of London, inviting the organization to hold the 1932 congress at Harvard has been accepted.

150 Visiting Scholars

The convention, which will be held in the first week in September in 1932, will attract more than 150 astronomers from 14 different countries, as well as many American astronomical authorities. This is the fourth meeting of the Union, which met in Rome in 1922, in Cambridge, England, in 1925, and in Leyden in 1928. The Union is made up of 27 international commissions who are doing special research work in various fields, and nine members of the Harvard Observatory staff are serving on 11 of these research bodies.

Total Eclipse in 1932

One of the principal reasons why the congress will meet here is because on August 31, 1932, there will be a total eclipse of the sun, visible in New England. The path of the totality will start near the Hudson Bay, curve down through New Hampshire and Maine and then go over Cape Cod disappearing a few hundred miles off shore in the Atlantic.

Nine Harvard Members

The nine members of the Harvard staff who are serving on the various commissions are Miss Adelaide Ames, on nebulae; Leon Campbell, on planets and variable stars; Dr. Shapley, on variable stars, telegraphic information, star distances, photometry, and nebulae; Dr. W. J. Fisher, on astronomical notations and meteors; Professor W. H. Pickering, on planets and lunar names, Dr. W. J. Luyten '24, on star distances and statistics; Professor E. S. King, photometry and double stars; Dr. A. J. Cannon, variable stars and spectra; D. B. Pickering, variable stars; Dr. C. H. Payne, spectra; Professor H. H. Plasket, spectra.