50 Years an astronomer: notes and recollections by C. Grover. (55p.)

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Includes: his birth and early life at Chesham, Bucks; apprenticed to brush maker; interest in astronomy; Great Comet of 1861; purchasing telescopes; Hartwell; employed by Mr Browning adjusting telescopes for scientists; attended meetings of Royal Astronomical Society; interest in Transit of Venus in 1874; organisation of party to go to Queensland to observe Transit of Venus in 1882, Captain Morris, Lieutenant Darwin, Cuthbert Peek; Grover invited to go; sailing on Liguria from Tilbury 24 August 1882; taking observations on board; splendours of Southern sky; small pox at Cape Town prevents landing; Melbourne, 8 October, 'Little London of the Southern Hemisphere'; visit to the Observatory; the Great reflecting telescope; Sydney, 16 October; met Ramsay, curator of Australian Museum; 'he said the authorities were very liberal to the Museum'; the Public Library; Chinese in Sydney; Sydney Observatory; voyage to Brisbane on Katoomba; site of Jimbour chosen for observatory; railway journey '[Mr Peek] had ridden the whole way up on the buffer beam in front of the engine and said he never saw such magnificent scenery before'; Macalister Station in Darling Downs; transporting equipment by dray across Downs; description of Jimbour; erection of portable observatory; the party became great sensation and centre of attraction; Morris and Darwin erect their equipment; visited by Indigenous Australians; condition of local Indigenous Australians, 'they are fast dying out before the advancing white man and civilization'; buriel customs; cannibalism; Peek, Morris and Darwin visit Bunya Mountains; preparations for observing Transit; 6 December cloudy and 'morning of 7th not a glimpse of the sun or the Transit of Venus was visible…the day wound up with the heaviest thunderstorm I ever saw'; packing up for return journey; splendours of Jimbour; left 20 December; Brisbane; electric light turned on on 23 December; natives in town 'one man with a large brass plate suspended around his neck by a chain with the inscription 'King George and Queen Helena' presented by Jas Campbell'.

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