AN OBSERVATORY ON MOUNT ETNA.
Tl:e Italian Government is about to construct a large observatory on Mount Etna, Which will be fitted for seismological as well as for meteorological and astronomical observations. A site has been selected at a height of 9625 ft above the level of the sea, near the Casa degl’ Inglesi, so called from a building erected there in 1811 by the English during their occupation of Sicily. The purity of the atmosphere is so great at this elevation that the planets can bo observed with the naked eye almost as well as with telescopes of low power through the thick atmosphere of towns. Venus, when shining alone in the heavens, casts a distinct shadow. The cost of the projected establishment will be borne chiefly by the Italian Government, the municipality of Catania bontributing a small proportion. The building will be the property of the University of Catania. This will be the second loftiest observatory in the world, the United States signal station at Pike’s Peak, in Colorado, at an elevation of 14,336 ft, being the loftiest station, and, indeed, the loftiest inhabited building of any kind in the world.
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Kumara Times, Issue 978, 18 November 1879, Page 3
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193AN OBSERVATORY ON MOUNT ETNA. Kumara Times, Issue 978, 18 November 1879, Page 3
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