70 Royal Astronomical Society, 



account), the interval of leisure was of no long duration; and he 

 was soon called upon for the discharge of more active duties. In 

 1834 an agreement was concluded between the government and the 

 members of the Astronomical Institution of Edinburgh, whereby the 

 latter gave up to the University the use of their observatory on the 

 Calton Hill, which the former undertook to convert into a public 

 establishment, by furnishing it with suitable instruments, and making 

 provision for an observer and assistant. It was then resolved to fill 

 up the office of Professor of Practical Astronomy, which had remained 

 vacant since 1828, and to combine with it the direction and super- 

 intendence of the observatory ; and the Secretary of State did this 

 Society the honour to request that a deputation from the Council 

 would confer and advise with him respecting the person whom it 

 might be proper to appoint to the situation. In consequence of this 

 request, a deputation waited upon Lord Melbourne, and, in the 

 strongest terms, recommended Mr. Henderson, whose appointment 

 accordingly followed immediately. The royal commission, nomina- 

 ting him Professor of Practical Astronomy and His Majesty's Astro- 

 nomer for Scotland, which was dated the 18th of August of that 

 year, required him to take upon himself the care and custody of the 

 instruments within the observatory, and " to apply himself with dili- 

 gence and zeal to making astronomical observations at the said ob- 

 servatory, for the extension and improvement of astronomy, geo- 

 graphy, and navigation, and other branches of science connected 

 therewith." 



Mr. Henderson was now placed in a situation suited in every re- 

 spect to his tastes, habits, and pursuits ; and, as he was still young, 

 those who were best acquainted with the extent of his knowledge, 

 his industrious habits, and his facility and accuracy in all practical 

 matters, formed the highest exijectations of the value of his future 

 services to astronomy. Nor were their expectations disappointed. 

 The annals of the Edinburgh Observatory, his Catalogue of Southern 

 Stars, his investigations of annual parallax, and other deductions 

 from his Cape observations, besides various contributions relative to 

 subjects of a less important, but always of an interesting nature, 

 amply justify the recommendation of our Council ; while their very 

 excellence increases our present regrets that a career so auspiciously 

 begun has been so prematurely brought to a close. 



As soon as Mr. Henderson had got his observatory into working 

 order, and had established a regular routine of duty, he resumed the 

 reduction of his Cape observations, — an occupation which engrossed 

 the greater part of his leisure time during the remainder of his life, 

 and of which the fruits dre a series of papers communicated to the 

 Society and published in our Memoirs, all more or less interesting, 

 and some of them of the first order of excellence. 



The next result of these reductions, and, indeed, one of the most 

 intrinsically important of the whole, was a Catalogue of the decli- 

 nations of 172 principal fixed stars, chiefly in the southern hemi- 

 sphere, which was read to the Society at the April meeting in 1837. 

 Owing to various causes of delay, the reduction of the right ascen- 



