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BOYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 79-] 



February 14, 1845. — Extracts from the Report of the Council of the 



Astronomical Society to the Annual General Meeting. 



The Royal Observatory must occupy a very prominent place in 

 this year's report. 



Tlie reduction of the Greenwich planetary observations from 1750 

 to 1830 was suggested by the British Association at the [first] Cam- 

 bridge meeting. On the motion of the Board of Visitors of the Royal 

 Observatory, Her Majesty's government undertook to defray the ex- 

 pense of printing, and committed the work to the charge of the As- 

 tronomer Royal. All is now done and printed in 671 large quarto 

 pages, except the introduction. There are five sections : I. contains 

 the investigation of clock errors and rates, and computation of mean 

 time, all by stars. II. Investigation (by stars) of index errors of 

 quadrants and circles, and zenith points of circles (the Tabulce Regio- 

 montancE are the basis of these two sections). III. Geocentric places 

 of the planets inferred from the original observations, and corrected 

 by the elements obtained in I. and II. IV. Computation of the ta- 

 bular geocentric places of the planets, each from the best existing 

 theory applying to that planet (the four small planets excepted). 

 V. A comparative view of the observed and tabular geocentric places, 

 and an exhibition of the equations which this gives for the heliocen- 

 tric errors of each planet. 



The reduction of the Greenwich lunar observations from 1750 to 

 1830 was also suggested by the British Association, and has been 

 carried on under the superintendence of the Astronomer Royal at the 

 expense of the government. The reductions being now very nearly 

 completed, the Board of Visitors has recommended to the govern- 

 fnent to print them with considerable detail, and with actual correc- 

 tion of the elements of the tables. This last is rendered practicable 

 by the deduced results having been uniformly compared with those 

 of Plana's lunar theory (with some emendations). It is understood 

 that an adequate sum is to be inserted in next year's estimates. 



It will be perceived that the Royal Observatory is making up its 

 ledger ; and future astronomers, who will nearly as soon publish 

 unmade as unreduced observations, will be surprised at the uniform 

 credit which it has maintained during the long period in which it 

 has never investigated the state of its own accounts. The truth is 

 that it has always led the world ; and it is not fair to demand of the 

 highest why it is not yet more high. We may now confidently ex- 

 pect new lunar tables, and considerable emendations of the planetary 

 ones. The astronomical world will not fail to bear in mind what it 

 owes to the present Astronomer Royal, who, when at the head of 

 the Cambridge Observatory, first presented a complete volume of 

 reduced observations as part of the regular business of the institution. 

 If, as may reasonably be assumed, the impulse given to astronomy 

 in England by the young exertions of this Society was one of the 



