16 APRIL 1887, Page 23

Hours with a Three - Inch Telescope. By Captain William Noble. (Longman.)—This

collection of papers, reprinted, for the most part, from Knowledge, aims at the useful object of enabling an amateur, equipped with a moderate amount of astronomical means, to make interesting observations. The first chapter is devoted to a descrip- tion of the instrument ; those that follow describe the work that may be done with it. Captain Noble would have increased the obligation under which be has put his readers if he had told them definitely what the "three-inch telescope " and its machinery costs. As it is, he does not give us anything more definite than that it cannot be " made for £5, or, in fact, for any sum approaching to it."