70 Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



best to send you the news directly ; and I beg you to make it known 

 in England, that a sufficient number of observations may soon be 

 collected. Excuse the shortness of this letter, which is written in 

 great haste.* Yours, &c. "Encke." 



Professor Airy says, there appears to be no reasonable doubt that 

 the object to which the foregoing relates is a new planet. 



Mr. Hind has since observed the new star : At h. 20 min. 15 sec, 

 sidereal time, on Wednesday evening, the right ascension of the 

 new planet was 4 hs. 8 min. 17'58 sec, and the declination 12° 45' 

 32"' 6, north. He was enabled to establish its motion in R.A. from 

 the observations made at Mr. Bishop's Observatory, Regent's Park, 

 on that evening. The planet has the appearance of a star of the 

 ninth or tenth magnitude. — Literary Gazette, Dec 27. 



The following letter from the Astronomer Royal has since been 

 published in the Times newspaper of the 29th inst. : — 



Royal Observatory, Greenwich, Dec. 27- 

 Sir, — I have this day received from Prof. Schumacher a letter re- 

 lating to the new planet, of which I request you to publish the fol- 

 lowing extract. 



I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, 



G. B. Airy. 



(Extract of a letter from Professor Schumacher.) 



" Mr. Encke obtained an observation on the 20th of December, 

 and this has enabled him to give an approximate sketch of the orbit 

 of the new planet. I send you the elements : — 



" Epoch of mean longitude, 1846, Jan. 0, at hour, 89° 32' 12"- 1 ; 

 longitude of perihelion, 214° 53' 7"'0 ; longitude of ascending node, 

 119° 44' 37"'5; inclination, 7° 42'8"'4; eccentricity, 0'207993 ; 

 logarithm of semiaxis major, 0*42144 ; daily mean motion in longi- 

 tude, 827"*65; periodic time, 156'5 days. 



" The discoverer has left the determination of the name to Mr. 

 Encke, and Mr. Encke calls it ' Astrsea.' 



" Yours, &c, H. C. Schumacher. 



"Altona, Dec. 23." 



NOTICE OF AN AURORA BOREALIS SEEN AT MANCHESTER. 

 To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal. 

 Gentlemen, 



I will thank you to record in your Philosophical Magazine, &c an 

 aurora borealis which was seen at this place on Wednesday evening, 

 the 3rd instant. It was first seen as a luminous arch about six 

 o'clock ; at half- past six the arch was complete throughout, from 

 the eastern to the western horizon, with a span of upwards of 100°. 

 The arch of light was perfectly steady and of an unusual breadth, 

 much broader indeed than any 1 have before noticed. The altitude 

 of the arch also was unusually great, a Ursa Majoris, then near 

 the meridian beneath the pole, was within the lower margin of the 



