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266 the photographic news. LArRIL 3, 1891. Motes. Those whose knowledge of astronomy is limited to a vague conception of the solar system as implanted in their youthful minds at school, are apt to be somewhat disappointed when they see photographs of the planets. They have heard so much of the wedding of the tele scope with the camera, and the marvellous results which that union has brought about, that they have been prepared to expect the photographs of Jupiter and Saturn to be as clearly defined as those of the moon, not understanding the great difficulties in procuring pictures of the more distant bodies. Mr. E. W. MLaunder, in a paper on ‘ ‘ Photography as Applied to Astronomy,” recently read before the Lantern Society, dealt with these difficulties in a masterly manner, and reminded his hearers that the very moderate light available did not admit of quick exposures, while the rapid rotation of the planets on their axes prevented those long exposures being resorted to which had been productive of such wonderful results in the ease of the fixed stars and of the nebul. The photographs, under such conditions, naturally left much to be desired, and could not compare favourably with the records obtained by a skilful draughtsman. The artist has another advantage over the photo grapher in the delineation of planetary wonders in the Use of colour. That this is an important point may be shown by a consideration of the appearance of the ring-girdled Saturn. To the naked eye, this planet is far inferior in brightness and general appearance to either Jupiter or Venus, and we all know how the ancients associated it with the dullness and heaviness of lead. How different it appears in the field of the telescope is well described by the late Mr. R. A. Proctor. He writes: “ We turn a powerful telescope on some calm, clear night, when the air is well suited for observation, and we see the most beautiful picture conceivable—a glorious orb, the surface resplendent with the most beautiful colours, blue at the poles, yellow elsewhere, crossed by a creamy white central pelt, and flecked with spots, which, under favourable circumstances, show brown, and purple, and ruddy tints. The most wonderful part of the picture, however, is the amazing ring-system,” &c. The beautiful tinted pictures which have been drawn by skilled artists of Jupiter and Saturn must be com pared with the photographs — those, for instance, published in Admiral Mouchez’s La Photographic Astronomigue — before it can be seen how the latter fail in rendering a true interpretation of the objects which they profess to portray. In the case of the nebulae, as Mr. Maunder remarked in his lecture, photography leaves all records founded on visual observations far behind, and the details of photographs taken by Mr. Common and Mr. Roberts have resulted in a great extension of our knowledge of such bodies. The lecturer did well to illustrate his remarks by the lantern, for he was able to show his audience how, in the case of the planets, the artists were ahead of the camera, and how the latter far out distanced all competitors in the case of the nebulae. By comparing the drawings in both cases with the photographs of the same objects, the matter was made clearer than it could have been by any other possible means. Among the capital pictures produced some years ago by the Society for Photographing Relics of old London, was one of the house in Bishopsgate Street occu pied in the reign of James I. by a merchant prince, and since sunk to the level of a “ public ” called, after his name, " The Sir Paul Pindar.” It was hoped that this interesting old place, with its projecting stories and carved wooden front, would have for some further time escaped the hand of the destroyer; but modern improvement and the demands of a railway company said no, and Sir Paul Pindar’s house has gone. But we were glad to think that someone at least has had the foresight to preserve something more than the photograph for future generations to look upon. The handsome wooden frontage of Sir Paul’s mansion is now being erected in the architectural section of the South Kensington Museum, where possi bly it will attract more notice than it did in the busy thoroughfare from which it has been removed. It has often been demonstrated that gelatine plates, besides being extremely sensitive to light—as they are expected to be—are also most sensitive to the attentions of less desirable acquaintances. Damp is naturally the most dangerous of these, but cases have been recorded where a strongly smelling compound placed in the same receptacle with a packet of plates has fogged the latter beyond redemption. In one case that we know of plates were sent by parcel post in a box which had contained curry powder, with the lamentable result just named. Messrs. Wratten and Wainwright have recently adopted a means by which such accidents to plates may be altogether obviated. They are supplying a well made tin box in which will tightly fit a packet of their plates of any standard size, and at such a cheap rate that no careful photographer will omit to make use of them. Such boxes, it is evident, will not only be useful for the Storage of plates, but will also be invaluable for the safe keeping of negatives, especially as they are of such a form that they can be stored away in bookshelves. A eoat of enamel paint and a label would make such a mode of preserving one’s negatives as neat a one as could possibly be wished. M. Deslandres, the chief of the Spectroscopic De partment of the Paris Observatory, confirms Herr Vogel’s evidence as to the error in photographs taken by Mr. Fowler at South Kensington of a Lyra, by