6 NOTES BY THE EDITOR 



Lamont's zones have also been reduced in part by himself. The cat- 

 alogue of 8,377 stars, published by the British Association in 1845, is 

 founded mainly on the older catalogues, but contains, also, stars to the 

 seventh magnitude inclusive, observed once only by Lalande or 

 Lacaille. The places of the stars in this catalogue are, consequently, 

 not uniformly trustworthy ; but as the authorities for the places are 

 indicated, the astronomer is not misled by this circumstance. 



" The above are the catalogues which are principally used in the 

 observations of the small planets and of comets. This class of obser- 

 vations must generally be made by means of stars as fixed points of 

 reference. The observer selects a star from a catalogue, either for 

 the purpose of finding the moving body, or for comparing its position 

 with that of the star ; but from the imperfection of the catalogue, it 

 sometimes happens that no star is found in the place indicated by it ; 

 and in most cases, unless the star's place has been determined by re- 

 peated meridian observations, it is not sufficiently accurate for final 

 reference of the position of the planet or comet. In catalogues re- 

 duced from zone observations, the star's right ascension generally de- 

 pends on a single transit across a single wire, and its declination on a 

 single bisection. This being the case, astronomers have begun to feel 

 the necessity of using the catalogue places of stars provisionally, in 

 reducing their observations, and of obtaining afterwards accurate 

 places by meridian observations. 



" It will be seen by this statement that, by the observations of the 

 small planets and of comets, materials are gradually accumulating for 

 the formation of a more accurate and more extensive catalogue of 

 stars than any hitherto published. The modern sources at present 

 available for such a work are the reduced and published observations 

 of the Greenwich, Pulkowa, Edinburgh, Oxford and Cambridge obser- 

 vatories, and the recently completed catalogue of 12,000 stars observed 

 and reduced by the indefatigable astronomer of Hamburg, Mr. Charles 

 Rumker, together with numerous incidental determinations of the places 

 of comparison stars in the ' Astronomische Nachrichten.' 



" To complete the present account of the state of Stellar Astrono- 

 my, mention should be made of two volumes recently published by 

 Mr. Cooper, containing the approximate places arranged in order of 

 Right Ascension of 30,186 stars from the 9th to the 12th magnitude, of 

 which only a very small number had been previously observed. The 

 observations were made with the Markree equatorial, and have been 

 piintcd at the expense of Her Majesty's Government." 



Some anxiety was felt by astronomers respecting the continuation 

 of that most indispensable publication the Astronomische JVachrichten, 

 after the decease of the editor, Mr. Petersen, in February last. This 



