THE OBSERVER’S HANDBOOK for 1966 is the 58th edition. Some changes in the data include the epoch for star positions from 1960 to 1970, the times of sunrise and sunset, and of twilight, for the current year instead of average values, and the table of the Central Meridian of Mercury has been replaced by an illustration of the standard Auroral forms.

Cordial thanks are offered to all individuals who assisted in the preparation of this edition, to those whose names appear in the various sections and to John Booker, Peter Broughton, Barbara Gaizauskas, Helen Sawyer Hogg, Joan Reick Hube, John Scherk, Bill Sherwood, Maude Towne, Isabel Williamson and Dorothy Yane. Special thanks are extended to Margaret W. Mayall, Director of the A.A.V.S.O., for the predictions of Algol and the variable stars and to Gordon E. Taylor and the British Astronomical Association for the prediction of planetary appulses and occultations.

My deep indebtedness to the British Nautical Almanac Office and to the American Ephemeris is gratefully acknowledged.

—Ruth J.Northcott