70 SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



hour after eleven in the evening : its light was very feeble j 

 in 41 minutes of time it moved 24 min. 40 fee. of right afcen- 

 fion direcl, and 6 min. 38 fee. north declination decreafing. 

 The fame comet was feen on the fame day, and almoft at the 

 fame inilant by Citizens Mechain and Bouvard ; the latter of 

 whom had even obferved it at the meridian at 1 l h 5? m 49 fee. 

 true time. The right afcenfion was 1 1 1 deg. 15 min. and the 

 north declination 69 deg. 30 min. 



C. Pons obferved it on the fame day at Marfeilles, and 

 he had even perceived it on the preceding day ; but the 

 clouds did not at that time permit him to afcertain, by regular 

 obfervations, whether it was a comet, or merely a nubecula. 

 Summer folftice, Ohfervation of the fummer foljlice of the year 9.— Citizen 

 Duc-la~ChapelIe, aflbciate, has communicated to us the refult 

 of the obfervations, made by him at Montauban, in order to 

 determine the folftitial height of the fun, and the obliquity of 

 the ecliptic. 



From an average of nine days obfervations, he finds 23 

 deg. 28 min. 9 fee. for the apparent obliquity, taking 15 min. 

 48 deg. for the femi-diameter of the fun, and 44 deg. min. 

 52 fee. for the latitude of his obfervatory. 

 Lalaade on the Remarks concerning the 50,000 Jtars, of which obfervations 

 foecj flats. have been publi/hed by Citizen Jero?n Lalande. — C. Lalande, in 



the preface to his Hijioire Celefte, had noticed the exigence of 

 many blank fpaces in the heavens, many changeable iiars, 

 and many red ftars. He now refumes thefe fubje&s in a more 

 circumftantial manner, in a memoir accompanied with tables. 

 By blank fpaces, (d'efpeces tuides) Citizen Lalande under- 

 stands in this memoir, thofe fpaces in which no liars of the 

 9th degree of magnitude are to be perceived. Thefe are the 

 fmalleft that can eafily be diftinguifhed with an achromatic 

 telefcope of 67 millimeters aperture, in which light is admitted 

 to illuminate the wires. 



It is not to be doubted that by excluding all light from fur- 

 rounding objecls, and employing the moft powerful telefcopes, 

 the blanks properly fo called would be found to be consider- 

 ably diminished ; perhaps even there is not a fingle fpot in the 

 firmament, towards which we could dirett a telefcope, with- 

 out perceiving a great number of ftars, though below the 

 ninth degree of magnitude, and confequently too fmall to be 

 gf any ufe in aftronomy, Q. Lalande gives the catalogue of 

 4 all 



