Royal Astronomical Society, 233 



IX. Notice of the Elliptic Orbit of^Bobtis, with a further Ap- 

 proximation to the Orbit ofy Virginis. By Sir John Herschel. 



X. On the Adoption of a Standard of Optical Power by Observers. 

 By the Rev. W. R. Dawes. 



XI. Description of a Double Reflecting Circle, and of a Quad- 

 ruple Reflecting Sextant, made by Mr. Jones, of Charing Cross, 

 under the direction of Captain W. F. Owen, R.N., and presented by 

 the latter to the Society. 



XII. Transits of the Moon with Moon-culminating Stars ob- 

 served at Cambridge Observatory, in the months of March, April, 

 May, and June, 1833. 



Agreeably to the intention expressed in vol. ii. p. 476, we now 

 return to some prior meetings of the Society, during the present year, 

 which have not hitherto been noticed in the Philosophical Magazine, 

 in order to complete our calendar of its proceedings. 



February 8. — At the Annual General Meeting holden this day, 

 being the Thirteenth, the Report of the Council was read, the Gold 

 Medal was presented to Professor Airy, for his paper "On an irre- 

 gularity of long period in the motions of the Earth and Venus," pub- 

 lished in the Philosophical Transactions for 1832, (of which an abs- 

 tract was given in Phil. Mag. and Annals, N.S., vol. xi. p. 117: see 

 also Lond. and Edinb. Phil. Mag., vol. i., p. 61.) and the following Fel- 

 lows were elected the Council and Officers for the ensuing year: viz. 



President : Francis Baily, Esq., V.P.R.S.— Vice Presidents: George 

 Biddel Airy, Esq., M.A., Plumian Prof. Ast. University of Cambridge ; 

 Captain F. Beaufort, R.N. F.R.S. ; Davies Gilbert, Esq., F.R.S. ; 

 John William Lubbock, Esq., M.A. V.P. and Treas. R.S. — Treasurer: 

 John Lee, Esq., LL.D. — Secretaries: George Bishop, Esq. j Augustus 

 De Morgan, Esq. ;— Foreign Secretary: Captain W. H. Smyth, R.N. 

 F.R.S. — Council: Bryan Donkin, Esq. ; Lieut. Thomas Drunimond, 

 R.E.j Thomas Jones, Esq.; Rear Admiral Sir Edward Owen, K.C.B.; 

 Lieut. Henry Raper, R.N.j Edward Riddle, Esq. ; Rev. Richard 

 Sheepshanks', M.A. F.R.S. ; Robert Snow, Esq., B.A. j Lieutenant 

 William S. Stratford, R.N. F.R.S ; Thomas Turner, Esq. M.A. 



April 12. — (continued from vol. ii. p. 475.) Of the researches de- 

 tailed and discussed in Professor Airy's paper " On the Mass of Ju- 

 piter" read at this meeting, we have already given a summary account, 

 at p. 314 of our last volume. Some particulars of the numerical 

 errors discovered by the autho- in the Mecanique Celeste, and his 

 final statement and estimate of" ti.e' value of his own results, we now 

 subjoin. 



" I had at first no intention o' correcting, or even examining the 

 numbers of the Mecanique Celt,..i \ but an examination simply for 

 the verification of the typography #1 accuracy, led me to doubt the 

 correctness of several of the numbe.s in page 94 of the fourth volume, 

 and of those which depend on them. On further examination, I 

 found that the variable terms, both of the radius vector and longitude, 

 as far as I examined, were nearly correct j but that in the constant 

 parts of the radius vector some terms were wrong in sign, one erro- 



Third Series. Vol. 3. No. 15. Sept. 1833. 2 H 



