66 Memoir of the late Francis Baily, Esq., F.R.S., ^c. 



his views, and in 1838 appointed two committees, eacii with 

 funds at their disposal, to execute the reductions and prepare 

 the catalogues. The reduction and arrangement of Lacaille's 

 stars was executed under the superintendence of Mr. Hender- 

 son, that of Lalande's under Mr. Baily, the arrangement of 

 the work in both (if I mistake not) having been effected on a 

 plan concerted and matured by the latter. Both works were 

 reported as complete (the prefaces alone excepted) in IS^S, 

 and it only remained to provide for their printing. This also 

 was done by the liberality of the British Government, who 

 assigned 1000/. for the purpose; and this work was especially 

 placed under Mr. Baily's direction. These catalogues, un- 

 happily, he did not live to see published. The printing, how- 

 ever, of each was found advanced at his decease as far as 

 8320 stars*, and is now continuing under the more immediate 

 inspection and superintendence of Mr. Stratford. 



Catalogue of the British Association. — I have yet to speak 

 of another and a magnificent work undertaken and brought 

 to a successful conclusion by Mr. Baily; a work which, per- 

 haps, deserves to be considered as the greatest boon which 

 could have been conferred on practical astronomy in its pre- 

 sent state, and whose influence will be felt in all its ramifica- 

 tions, giving to them a coherence and a unity which it could 

 hardly gain from any other source. I allude to the general 

 standard catalogue of nearly 10,000 stars, which the British 

 Association are about to publish, at the instance of Mr. Baily. 

 The plan of this great and useful work is an extension of that 

 of the Astronomical Societ}', of which I have already spoken 

 The stars (selected by Mr. Baily) form a universal system of 

 zero-points, comprehending probably every star of the sixth 

 and higher magnitudes in the whole heavens. All the coeffi- 

 cients for their reduction are tabulated, and the greatest pains 

 bestowed upon their exact identification and synonymes in 

 other catalogues; so that this, in all human probability, will 

 become the catalogue of universal reference. It is preceded 

 by a valuable preface from the pen of Mr. Baily, his last con- 

 tribution to astronomical science. 



A very important feature of this and the two catalogues last 

 noticed is their nomenclature. The system adopted is the 

 same in all; and that^ a system not capriciously adopted or 

 servilely copied, but founded on a most searching and careful 

 revision of all existing catalogues, and of the charts of Bayer, 

 Flamsteed and Lacaille, rectifying the boundaries of constel- 

 lations which had become strangely confused, correcting in- 



* The total number of stars in the two catalogues respectively, will 

 amount to 9766 and 47,400. 



