54 Mr, South on the [Jan. 



Article XII. 



The Mean P/nces o/'46 Greenwich Stars, reduced to Jan. 1, 1822, 

 Jrom the Catalogue published in the Nautical Almanac for 

 1823. By James South, Esq. FRS. 



(To the Editor of the Annals of Philosophy.) 



DEAR SIR, Blac]iman.sircct^Dcc.2b^\H'2\. 



In the Quarterly Journal of Science published in January and 

 July last. Corrections in Right Ascension of the 36 principal 

 Fixed Stars, were pubhshed by me for every day of the present 

 year, and it was my intention to have continued them annually had 

 not the Astronomical Society taken up the matter upon a more 

 extensive scale ; and under the idea that the first results of its 

 labours would have appeared before the public in time sufficient 

 to render the prosecution of my plan almost, if not altogether 

 useless, that leisure which must have been employed by me to 

 have had the computations ready against the present period, has 

 been otherwise disposed of. Should, however, fresh delays long 

 postpone the publication of the Society's tables, I shall feel it 

 my duty to resume the task, unless, in the mean time, some one 

 should anticipate me. 



Unable, therefore, at present to give the corrections, I must 

 content myself with offering a catalogue of the mean places of the 

 46 stars reduced to January 1, 1822, and I am the more anxious 

 to do this, in consequence of one which has appeared in the 

 Nautical Almanac for 1824 ; of this production it is needless for 

 me to say any thing, except that it is inaccurate and unsatisfac- 

 tory ; inaccurate, as far as the north polar distances of its stars 

 are concerned ; and unsatisfactory, inasmuch as the long conti- 

 nued habit of giving the right ascensions to hundredths of 

 seconds, has been abandoned. While, however, in common with 

 others, 1 lament that such a catalogue should have found its way 

 to the pages of a book which, in accuracy and precision, should 

 be surpassed by no one issuing from the press, 1 cannot consent 

 to withdraw my confidence altogether from preceding catalogues, 

 and go abroad in search of better ; thinking, as I do, that 

 although unforeseen circumstances may have conspired to render 

 one objectionable, still all should not be placed in the like con- 

 demnation. Under this impression, let me urge upon my fellow 

 labourers in the same pursuit, the propriety of adhering to their 

 own Greenwich catalogue published in the Nautical Almanac 

 for 1823 ; so will their observations tally with each other's, and 

 also with those made at our own great national establishment, 

 with instruments which are not less the pride and glory of Great 

 Britain, than they are the envy and admiration of the world. 



J. South. 



