IV NOTES BY TUE EDITOR 



the observations of the positions and distances of double stars ; thirdly, 

 observation?, delineations, and catalogues of the nebuUe ; fourthly, 

 observations of the minor planets ; fifthly, cometary observations ; 

 sixthly, observations of the solar spots, and other phenomena on the 

 sun's disk ; seventhly, occultations of stars by the moon, eclipses of the 

 heavenly bodies, and other occasional extra-meridional observations. 



" And, first, as to cataloguing and mapping the smaller stars. This 

 means, as you know, the accurate determination by astronomical obser- 

 vation of the places of those objects, as referred to certain assumed 

 fixed points in the heavens. The first Star Catalogue, worthy to be so 

 called, is that which goes by the name of Flamsteed's, or the British 

 Catalogue. It contains above 3000 stars, and is the produce of the 

 labors of the first Astronomer Royal of Greenwich. About the middle 

 of the eighteenth century, the celebrated Dr. Bradley, who also filled the 

 post of Astronomer Royal, observed an almost equally extensive Cata- 

 logue of Stars, and the beginning of the nineteenth century gave birth 

 to that of Piazzi of Palermo. These three are the most celebrated of 

 what may be now termed the ancient Catalogues. About the year 

 1830, the attention of modern astronomers was more particularly 

 directed to the expediency of reobserving the stars in these three Cat- 

 alogues ; a task which was much facilitated by the publication of a 

 very valuable work of the Astronomical Society, which rendered the 

 calculations of the observations to be made comparatively easy ; and, 

 accordingly, observations were commenced and completed in several 

 public and private observatories, from which some curious results were 

 deduced ; as, e. g., sundry stars were found to be missing, and others 

 to have what is called k proper motion.' And now a word as to the 

 utility of this course of observation. It is well observed by Sir John 

 Uerschel, ' that the stars are the landmarks of the universe ; every 

 well-determined star is a point of departure which can never deceive 

 the astronomer, geographer, navigator, or surveyor.' We must have 

 these fixed points in order to refer to them all the observations of the 

 wandering heavenly bodies, the planets and the comets. By these 

 fixed marks we determine the situation of places on the earth's sur- 

 face, and of ships on the ocean. When the places of the stars have 

 been registered, celestial charts are constructed ; and by comparing 

 these with the heavens, we at once discover whether any new body be 

 present in the particular locality under observation ; and thus have 

 most of the fifty-seven small or minor planets between Mars and Jupiter 

 been discovered. The observations, however, of these smaller stars, 

 and the registry of their places in Catalogues, and the comparisons of 

 the results obtained at different and distinct periods, have revealed 

 another extraordinary fact, no less than that our own sun is not fixed 

 in space, but that it is constantly moving forward towards a point in 

 the constellation Hercules, at the rate, as it is supposed, of about 18,000 

 miles an hour, carrying with it the whole plane iary and cometary sys- 



