REMARKS ON THE CONSTELLATIONS. J73 



II r. 



Letter from N. R. D., containing some Remarks and Emen- 

 dations of his Communication in the Number for January. 



To Mr. NICHOLSON. 

 SIR, 



JL Take the liberty of sending you a few remarks on the Corrections &• 

 translation from Lalande, which you did me the favour of additions to the 



t -»t paperonthe 



inserting in the last number of your Journal. My only rea- Constellations 

 son for sending it originally to you was, the hopes of being inour8ist 

 useful, and the same motive induces me to point out the cor- 

 rections which have occurred to me. 



In p. 3 I have given a somewhat different description from Gemini. 

 Lalande of the means by which we may find the constella- 

 tion of Gemini; because I think that in general it is much 

 more clear to the beginner, when the object to be found is 

 situate between two others, with which he is already ac- 

 quainted. I therefore ventured to alter the arrangement of 

 my author's directions, while I preserved the substance of 

 it: but it might have marked the line still more strongly, if 

 I had added with him, that it passes nearly through e and £ 

 the two stars in the tail of the great Bear which are nearest 

 the body. 



P. 5, 1. 18. Lalande describes the head of Andromeda as Head of An- 

 the " most northern" star in the square of Pegasus, and so dromeda. 

 it really is; but its declination so little exceeds that of Pe- 

 gasi, that it would have been much more clear to have called 

 it the " N. E." star. 



P. 3. line 6 from bottom. The "leg" of Ophiucus is Ophiucus. 

 substituted for the " foot," in consequence of my having 

 used Dr. Bevis's Uranographia Britannica. The eastern 

 foot is there placed in 10° or 11° of south declination. I 

 had not, when I wrote, the opportunity of consulting Flam- 

 stead's Atlas Ccelestis, or I should have made no alteration. 

 This circumstance will account for my having omitted the 

 notice of the two feet being on the ecliptic. 



P. 9, 1. 12 from bottom. A line drawn from Capella * Ceti, 

 through the Pleiades will also *' pass south of a. Ceti." It 

 should have been said, as it is in the French, that it will 



point 



