148 



Royal Astronomical Society. 



have considerable curvature. The account was accompanied by a 

 small sketch of its appearance on the 5th of March. 



2. A Letter from John Belam, Esq., Master of H. M. Sloop Alba- 

 tross, on the Great Comet of 1843. Communicated by G. B. Airy, 

 Esq., Astronomer Royal. 



" On the 2nd of March, in latitude 18° 33' 18" N. and longitude 

 72° 17' 0" West of Greenwich, a meteor made its appearance in 

 the western quarter of the heavens of a whitish colour. It became 

 brighter each succeeding evening, and on the 7th we obtained the 

 following observations : — In form it is like an elongated birch rod, 

 slightly curved : the head or commencement of it being nearest the 

 horizon at an altitude of about 19°, the tail pointing in the direction 

 of Sirius, and measuring from the head 28°. That part of it from 

 which the tail is produced is of a reddish appearance, but no star is 

 visible through a common telescope. 



Greenwich Mean Time. Observed Distance between 



h m s o t a 



March 7. 11 54 56 The Comet and Sirius 83 12 10 



11 56 33 ... aCanopus.. 75 25 40 



Observed Azimuth South, 79° 10'. 

 Greenwich Mean Time. Observed Distance between 



h m 8 o/i 



March 13. 11 52 46 The Comet and a Canopus 66 55 10 

 11 54 46 ... Sirius ... 67 1 40 



11 55 46 ... Aldebaran 44 26 30 



Its altitude appears to be about 23° ; its azimuth (observed), South 

 79° 11'. 



" It showed brightest on the 7th instant, and since then to the 

 13th it has gradually become fainter. 



" Since its appearance the generative point has been surrounded 

 by a misty haze, from which cause the observations could not be 

 taken with any great precision. 



■ H.M. Sloop Albatross, Port au Prince, 

 St. Domingo, 14th March, 1843." 



3. Observations of the Comet by Mr. S. C. Walker and Professor 

 Kendall, at the Observatory of the High School at Philadelphia. 

 Communicated by Lieut. -Col. Sabine. 



The comet was observed with the 9-feet Fraunhofer equatoreal, 

 and the observations are cleared of the effects of differences of re- 

 fraction, but not of the effects of parallax and aberration. Latitude 

 of the Observatory, 39° 57' 8"; longitude, 5 h m 41 s> 9. 



