Royal Aitronomical Society, 



525 



The anonymous star observed (at Greenwich) on October 12, 

 A. S. C. 79. (Piscium, apparent right ascension at Greenwich 

 0^ 39"» 53«,52 ; at Cambridge 0^ SQ*" 53»,73 ; at Edinburgh 0^ 39™ 

 53^,30.), has an erroneous right ascension in the Nautical Almanac, 

 derived from an erroneous right ascension in the Astronomical So- 

 ciety's Catalogue. See the Cambridge Observations, 1831. 



April 13. — ^The following communications were read : — 



I. On the Correction of the Mean Distance, Eccentricity, Epoch, 

 and Longitude, of the Aphelion of the Orbit of Venus, by Errors of 

 Heliocentric Longitude, derived from the Cambridge Observations 

 of the Years 1833, 1834, and 1835, and the Greenwich Observations 

 of 1836. By the Rev. R. Main. 



The author states, that being furnished by the Astronomer Royal 

 with his computed errors of heliocentric longitude of the planet 

 Venus, derived from four years' unintermitted observations, he un- 

 dertook to correct the above-mentioned elements by jneans of them . 

 An abstract of the paper appears in the Monthly Notices for April, 

 giving the ultimate results of the investigation as follows : 



The combined equations are given separately for each year, to 

 the end that any suspected error may be more readily detected, and 

 the solutions given for each year separately. They are as follow : 



II. Moon culminating Observations made at Rio Janeiro and 

 Valparaiso in 1836. By Captain F. W. Beechey, R.N. 



From these observations, compared with the corresponding ob- 

 servations made at Greenwich, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Paris, and 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and with the Nautical Almanac, Captain 

 Beechey has deduced the following results. 



Longitude of Fort S. Antonio, Valparaiso. . 7P 39' 36"-7 W. 



Longitude of Anhatomirim, Brazil 43 09 13 '5 W. 



III. Times of Immersion of the first and second Satellites of 

 Jupiter, observed at Greenwich Hospital Schools, April 9, 1838. 

 By E. Riddle, Esq. See Monthly Notices. 



IV. Longitude of the Edinburgh Observatory, computed from 

 the corresponding Moon Culminating Observations made at Edin- 

 burgh and Greenwich, from August 24, 1836,« till the end of 1837. 

 By Mr. Riddle. 



The number of observations is 62, and the mean of the whole, 

 allowing each observation weight proportional to the number of stars 

 observed, gives the longitude =12™ 44*, 7. 



In the Notices for March 1837, are given the results deduced from 

 all the corresponding observations of the same class, made at the 

 two Observatories under the direction of the present astronomers, 

 before the date of the first in this list. The mean result of these 



