Royal Astronomical Society. 575 



an immoderate number of them the knowledge of the stars is ren- 

 dered more difficult, and the taste vitiated, I would entreat astrono- 

 mers to assist in freeing the heavens from such an useless accumu- 

 lation, and to remove all the constellations that have been intro- 

 duced since the time of Hevelius and Flamsteed. If it should be 

 found desirable to take away some of Hevelius's constellations, and 

 even to retain some of those which have been introduced in the 

 eighteenth century, there should be no partiality shown, so as to 

 endanger the wished-for uniformity in our maps ; therefore, it might 

 appear quite unnecessary for me to fix a precise point where the 

 line was to be drawn. It would be advisable also that the constel- 

 lations should be delineated in such an uniform manner in all maps 

 that there should be the same stars in the same parts of the figures. 

 It is true that we do not, after the manner of the ancients, and of 

 Hevelius, denote different stars merely by their place, but more di- 

 stinctly by letters or numbers ; yet it is very useful if we could at 

 once denote the place which a new phenomenon (for example, a 

 comet) has taken, and also the direction of its motion, by the por- 

 tions of those constellations in which it was observed. We might, 

 in this regard, take the figures in Flamsteed's great atlas as our 

 types ; and with the more propriety, since Flamsteed has constructed 

 them according to the ancient figures and the descriptions given by 

 Ptolemy ; with this exception, that some of his figures are ugly and 

 badly drawn. This is a point, however, that might easily be re- 

 medied, by following the beautiful and pleasing forms of Senex, 

 Vaugondy, Pater Chrysologue, and others. But when once the 

 proposed forms have been adopted there should be no further un- 

 certainty or deviation*. 



Continuation of the Investigation for the correction of the Ele- 

 ments of the Orbit of Venus. By Mr. Glashier. 



In this paper the author has combined the equations formed for 

 the correction of the elements from the Greenwich observations for 

 the year 1839, with those given in his preceding paper, a notice of 

 which is contained in the eighth Number of vol. v. of the Monthly 

 Notices [or Phil. Mag., Third Series, vol. xviii. p. 601.]. 



Venus was near her inferior conjunction in the autumn of the 

 year 1839, and the observed errors were consequently very well suited 

 for the correction of the elements. The results deduced now de- 

 pend on eighty-two equations, which, the author remarks, are 

 formed from the combination of as great a number of observations 

 as have ever been applied in determining the elements of any 

 planet. 



The formation of the equations is arrived at in precisely the 

 same manner as in the preceding paper, and the resulting correc- 

 tions to the elements are as follows : — 



Correction of the Semi Axis Major = — 0*00000776 



Eccentricity = + 0-00002303 



[* On the subject of this memoir, see an abstract of a paper by Sir John 

 Herschel, in the Proceedings of the Society for June, supra, p. 582. — Ed.] 



