188 Professor C. Piazzi Smyth's Meteorological 



323° 60', and 322° 12'. Inclination to plane of projection, 2?° 23', 

 and 28° 42'. Excentricity, 08804, and 0-88GO ; and period, 171-54 

 years, and 18314 years. 



Mr LasseVs Be/lector. — Mr Lassel of Liverpool writes of having 

 tried the method of supporting a speculum at great angles of incli- 

 nation, which he described the principle of to the British Associa- 

 tion here last summer, and has found it to answer fully as well as 

 he had expected. The performance of the telescope being much im- 

 proved thereby, and very equal at all distances from the zenith. He 

 has likewise made^ an improvement in his polishing-machine, by 

 giving a special movement to the polisher ; but complains as much 

 as ever of the untoward atmosphere. The greater part of our obser- 

 vatories, indeed, both public and private, seem built on purpose to 

 court the utmost of these ungrateful impediments to astronomical 

 observation. 



Comet of Biela. — This comet, which was an object of such extreme 

 interest at its last apparition in 1846, on account of its separation into 

 two distinct bodies, while under our eyes, will be an object of equally 

 earnest attention at its next appearance in 1852, to ascertain whether, 

 as suspected, the separation has been increasing, and there be now 

 two distinct comets, moving in different orbits. To assist in the 

 search, Professor Sestini has computed from his elements, an ephe- 

 meris for July to September 1852, and it has been published in 

 the Astronomical Society's Monthly Notices. 



The Establishment of the New Meridian Instrument at Greenwich. 

 — The Astronomer Royal's Report to the Greenwich visitors describes 

 the new meridian instrument as being now actually at work, and 

 with all the contemplated good results. The first desideratum, that 

 of more light, has been obtained not only by the use of a large object- 

 glass, but by employing a method of illumination 'which gives at 

 pleasure, either dark wires and a bright field, or bright wires and a 

 dark field. Though the instrument is so much larger than the old 

 mural circle, yet the reading off of the divisions by the microscopes 

 is far easier, by means of their convenient conical arrangement and 

 abundant light ; while, above all, there are such much more perfect 

 means of examining into the necessary adjustments of the telescope 

 than were provided with the older class of instruments, — means, too, 

 that can be referred to so frequently, and under any circumstances 

 of weather. 



Mr Airy is therefore well justified in taking down from their piers^ 

 the old transit instrument and mural circle, and hanging them up on 

 the walls of what is becoming an astronomical museum room, 

 amongst the other exploded forms of instruments belonging to byo-one 

 ages. And of all the successive advances that have been made at 

 one time, from one form and construction to another, there is hardly 

 any so important and so striking as the one in question. The dis- 

 missal indeed of the mural circle to the abode of the defunct, is an - 



