64 Astronomical Society. 



After the delivery of the Medals, the Society proceeded 

 to the election of a Council and Officers for the year ensuing ; 

 when on examining the lists, the following was found to be 

 the state of the ballot : 



Members of the old Council to continue. — Davies Gilbert, 

 Esq. M.P. Capt. Francis Beaufort, R.N. ; John George 

 Children, Esq. ; Sir Humphry Davy, Bart. ; John F. W. 

 Herschel, Esq. M.A.; Sir Everard Home, Bart. V.P. ; 

 Capt. Henry Kater, V.P.; John Pond, Esq. A.R. ; William 

 Prout, M.D.; William Hyde Wollaston, M.D. V.P.; Thomas 

 Young, M.D. Foreign Sec. 



Members of the Society chosen into the Council. — Francis 

 Baily, Esq.; The Rev. William Buckland, D.D. ; Charles 

 Lord Colchester; John Wilson Croker, Esq.; William Henry 

 Fitton, M.D. ; The Rev. Edmund Goodenough, D.D. ; John 

 Guillemard, Esq. ; John Ayrton Paris, M.D. ; Peter Mark 

 Roget, M.D. ; Capt. Edward Sabine, Roy. Art. 



Officers for the ensuing year : 



President: Davies Gilbert, Esq. M.P. — Treasurer: Capt. 

 Henry Kater. — Secretaries : Peter Mark Roget, M.D.; Capt. 

 Edw. Sabine. 



ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 



Nov. 9. — Mr. Baily presented a paper " On the right ascension 

 of y Cassiopecc." As this paper is a short one, and of an interesting 

 nature we shall give it nearly in the words of the author: 



" On comparing the Catalogue of Stars, recently published by 

 this Society, with the Catalogue of 100 principal fixed stars given 

 by Mr. Pond, at the end of the Nautical Almanac for 1829, 1 was 

 struck (he says) with the considerable difference which appears in 

 the JR of y Cassiopea? : Mr. Pond making the JR of that star up- 

 wards of one second (in time) more than the Catalogue printed by 

 this Society. At first I imagined that some error might have crept 

 into the calculations of the Society's Catalogue, notwithstanding 

 they were made by two computers, independent of each other, and 

 afterwards revised by our indefatigable secretary, Mr. Stratford. 

 I therefore, for my own satisfaction, went through the whole com- 

 putations myself, and was pleased to find that there was not the 

 slightest difference in the results. I next reduced the whole of the 

 observations of that star made by Mr. Pond at the Royal Observa- 

 tory at Greenwich, and found them to agree very nearly with the 

 result, deduced by Mr. Taylor, who makes the mean of 10 ob- 

 servations to be = h 46 m 13 s ,23 reduced to Jan*. 1, 1825: whereas 

 the Society's Catalogue gives only h 46 m 12 s ,13 on January 1, 

 1825 ; being a difference, as already stated, of 1%1. Bradley has 



on the very clay that the medal was delivered, His Royal Highness the 

 Lord High Admiral was graciously pleased to advance Mr. Foster to the 

 situation of a commander, and to assign him a ship for a voyage of scientific 

 investigations in the Southern hemisphere. 



5 observa- 



