| Description | He promised to write after their talk, but thinks it a pity that the policy on Chairs of Astronomy was undecided before the election of Sir George Darwin's successor. Sad events have meant that Sir Robert Ball's Chair may also be vacant. A delay might allow the electord to consider both. Mathematics is well taught at Cambridge. Money obtained for a Solar Physics Observatory, the transfer of instruments from Kew, and funds for a Professorship in Astrophysics suggest that a separate department is needed. Cambrudge will become a complete establishment for teaching astronomy, and a Professor of Astrodynamics shoud be provided for. He can think of no one man fit for such a role and therefore recommends three posts, Professors of Astrodynamics, Astrophysics, and Practical Astronomy. [Hugh Frank] Newall should have Astrophyics, [Ernest William] Brown Astrodynamics, and [William Mitchinson] Hicks would fit Practical Astronomy. For advanced subjects, he suggests [Arthur Stanley] Eddington as 'an admirable Director of the Observatory', although it would be hard on [Frank] Dyson and Greenwich. He deprecates the mixing up of responsibility for solar physics, stellar spectroscopy, and astrophyics lectures with other Observatory duties. |