Royal Astronomical Society. i2 .g^^^^^'^^o v% 



the south of Russia. Mr. Sheepshanks (and afterwar<fi Rar.^il9^n*y . . 

 was stationed with a portable transit instrument at Kinge.towflV-^ad^ * * 

 thirty pocket chronometers were carried backwards and :(f^wa«aej "^-^^ 

 eight times each way. The mode of carriage was as follows ''i^** j? ^0:T' 



The chronometers being in two well-padded cases, each contain- 

 ing fifteen, these cases were inserted in boxes which were screwed to 

 the railway carriages and steam-boats (the owners of which gave 

 every possible facility) : these boxes were not disturbed throughout 

 the whole operation, each one forming, in fact, a part of a carriage 

 or steam-boat ; all had similar locks, and each person employed was 

 furnished with a key. An assistant took the chronometers from 

 Greenwich to the Euston Square station; Mr. Hartnup received 

 them at Liverpool and transferred them to the steam-boat ; and Mr. 

 Sheepshanks or Mr. Hind received them at Kingstown. In a similar 

 manner, when a portable transit was erected at a station at Valentia, 

 under the charge of Lieut. Gossett, R.E., the chronometers were 

 carried backwards and forwards, ten times each way, in boxes fixed 

 upon the mail coaches as far as Tralee, and afterwards in an express 

 car, furnished by M. Bianconi. 



Several parts of the disputed boundary between the United States 

 and British North America are defined astronomically ; and, to pre- 

 pare for the proper execution of this part, two officers of engineers. 

 Captain Robinson and Lieutenant Pipon, employed under the British 

 Commissioner, Lieut.- Colonel Estcourt, were for some time stationed 

 at the Royal Observatory. There was one point which was not ne- 

 cessarily astronomical, the drawing a straight line of between 60 and 

 70 miles to connect two defined points. As it appeared almost im- 

 possible to eflfect this by survey, from the difficult character of the 

 country, Mr. Airy recommended that the azimuths at the two ends 

 should be computed from observed latitudes and difference of longi- 

 tudes, and that two parties should cut through the woods in the as- 

 signed directions, one from each terminal station. The two parties 

 thus cutting, independently of each other, drew lines which met 

 within 300 feet. 



We have yet to acknowledge one more obligation to the Astro- 

 nomer Royal, namely, the recent publication of a Catalogue of the 

 Places of 1439 Stars reduced to the 1st of January 1840. This work 

 contains the mean places of stars deduced from all the observations 

 made at Greenwich in the years 1836 to 1841 inclusively. The 

 place of the equinox is that resulting from observations during the 

 same period. The year which corresponds to the mean of the ob- 

 servations of each element is also given ; and the annual precession 

 for 1S40, with the proper motion for those stars in which account of 

 proper motion has been taken. This necessary information with 

 respect to the mean date was first given, we believe, in the Cam- 

 bridge Catalogue ; and we trust that every future catalogue will also 

 contain it. It is otherwise impossible to investigate proper motion, 

 or the changes in proper motion, with the nicety which the present 

 state of practical astronomy authorises us to apply to these delicate 

 researches. The nomenclature is taken from Baily's ' Flamsteed,' the 



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