364 Prof. C Piazzi Smyth's Meteorological 



was given, has been a heavy blow and. a serious discouragement to 

 the prosecutors of sidereal and telescopic astronomy. 



Nor are matters much better when we turn to the East India 

 Company ; for it seems that though Captain Jacob has received 

 permission to remove a part of the establishment of the Madras Ob- 

 servatory to the Nilgherry hills, to work a large reflecting telescope 

 there; still he is distinctly told that he must not expect that the 

 Honourable Company will be at any expense in providing the said 

 telescope ; — it must be made by himself, and at his own expense. Now, 

 even allowing that, with his skill at the foundry and at such lathes 

 as he could procure the use of in India, — ^he might turn out an instru- 

 ment of sufficiently good quality to meet the requirements of present 

 times, still how small must necessarily be its size and consequent power, 

 when limited only by the possible extent of savings from his salary. 



7. Observations of a Centaur i and a Piscium. — In another de- 

 partment of the observatory, the Court of Directors seems to have 

 been much more hberal, and has provided it with an equatorial in- 

 strument well adapted for accurate observation of the larger double 

 stars ; and from a recent letter I extract my friend's observations 

 of a^ and ^ Centauri for 1850, not only on account of the rapid mo- 

 tion of the stars during the interval, and the great interest which now 

 attaches to them, but on account of the extreme goodness of the ob- 

 servations themselves, equalling, if not surpassing, as they do, anything 

 that I have before met with in double star observation ; and though 

 the actual discovery of new stars and satellites may be a matter of 

 more popular interest at the time, and even induce nations to contend 

 for the honour of priority, yet the accuracy of numerical measures of 

 known bodies is a matter deserving of equal praise, and will in future 

 astronomical ages be probably considered of greater consequence, or 

 at least will be more thankfully received, and more preciously trea- 

 sured than the mere date of the first discovery. 



** Below," says Captain Jacob, " are all my last year's observa- 

 tions on a Centauri, collected in groups of three or four sets each. 

 They form rather a pretty series, unbroken in position, and with 

 only one break in the distance, though three of the intervals are but 

 of three weeks each. If we get another as good for this year, we 

 ought to know something about the orbit. 



a ^ and ^ Centauri. 



