Referee report by J. F. W. Herschel on 'Astronomical Experiment on the Peak of Teneriffe, Carried out under the Sanction of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty' by C. Piazzi Smyth

                                national undertaking, embracing various important scientific
objects of enquiry at a most interesting station, & the Observer 
seems to have presented his part of the undertaking diligently 
and ably. Several of the questions propounded in the pro-
gramme have been answered satisfactorily & definitively.
In some, which from want of time - instrumental failure 
or inadequacy - or the peculiarities of local conditions, have 
not been thoroughly investigated, valuable progress has been 
made, and many new & very interesting facts & features have 
been brought into notice. -
Of the questions which have received a positive solution 
whether affirmative or negative, the principal are 
1st. That of the advantages of a very elevated situation for 
Astronomical observations, in the way of encreased efficiency 
of the telescope - emphatically answered in the affirmative 
and the instances adduced bear out the conclusions -
The three figures of Jupiter, (assumed to be faithful represen-
tations) express details which it would be in vain to look for 
in any Telescope at the Sea level -  and the statements as to the 
definitions of double stars, the tranquillity of images, and the 
encreased range of magnitudes brought into view are distinct 
and convincing - Among the causes of the superior efficiency 
of refracting telescopes the complete absence of dew stands forward 
as a very prominent one.
2nd. Question as to the eligibility of the Peak as a Mountain 
whose attraction would afford a good measure of the Earth’s 
density and its fitness for a Pendulum Station. - Quite as 
emphatically answered in the negative. -
3rd. Advantages as a Station in which Observations of the physical 
nature of the Sun can be prosecuted, such as the structure and 
changes of its Surface - the spots, jaculae, & red protuberances 
&c, refractions at the confines of its atmosphere &c &c -
The