- A ' •"Wit*? 



1 36 '*I$&ftit '"AM*&M)niffl Society. 



the results may be ihierred^w^Jftiis statement, that the extreme 

 discordance of the determinations of difference of longitude from 

 sixty signals was only four-tenths of a second. The intermediate 

 parts have been filled up by the usual operations of surveying. 

 There is no doubt that the map of this wild tract will be comparable 

 in accuracy to that of any country in Europe. A general map is in 

 preparation on a scale of four inches to a mile, with special maps on 

 that of twelve inches to a mile. 



At Cambridge, the observations of comets and of the new planet 

 have, for the present, superseded those of double stars. The volume 

 for 1842 has just been published. Besides the usual matter, it con- 

 tains the accurate places of a large number of double stars. During 

 the last year, the meridian observations were confined to stars ; for 

 the most part, either double stars or stars observed with comets. By 

 this means Professor Challis hopes to complete a second Cambridge 

 Catalogue, at the same time that he effects the reduction of the large 

 number of comet observations which he has taken. 



The last year has been marked to the astronomer by the appear- 

 ance of the Catalogue of the British Association. This inestimable 

 volume, which contains the mean places for 1850 of 8377 stars, 

 with all the requisite aids for obtaining their apparent places for any 

 other epoch, is an extension and completion of the Catalogue pub- 

 lished in 1827 by this Society, and so well known as the Astrono- 

 mical Society's Catalogue. Both were published under the same 

 superintendence, and both bear the name of Francis Baily on their 

 title-pages ; but though upon the same plan, yet the second appears 

 with such additions and improvements as render it a new work. 

 For, first, the number of stars is nearly trebled ; secondly, from the 

 particular attention which has been paid of late years to this branch 

 of astronomy (chiefly owing, it may be said, to our own Catalogue), 

 the accuracy of the mean places has been immensely increased; 

 thirdly, the secular variations of the precession have been added, as 

 well as the annual proper motions, so far as they are known ; and 

 lastly, in the nomenclature, in the exact citation of authorities, and, 

 it must be added, in the beauty of the getting-up, every thing has 

 been done which the greatest experience and zeal could suggest. 



The preface contains a clear account of the process of composing 

 the catalogue, of the formulae employed or to be employed, of the 

 motives which directed the author in his variations from antecedent 

 authorities, — in short, all that would have been expected from 

 Francis Baily on the subject which had occupied him principally, 

 though not exclusively, for a quarter of a century. The work was 

 completed, with the exception of some notes, and partly printed, at 

 the author's decease, and the task of bringing the whole to the de- 

 sired end has been ably performed by his friend and coadjutor in the 

 labour of constructing and printing our former catalogue, Lieutenant 

 Stratford. 



But though this volume is, and will be for years, the text-book of 

 the practical astronomer, it must not be received as a perfect work, 

 but as a step — an immense step, to be sure — towards perfection- 



