.•)54 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1885. 



the accuracy of the observations, and for the thoroughness of the re- 

 ductions." {Observatory.) 



Cape observations. — Dr. Gill has published, in one volume, the Cape 

 Meridian Observations 1879-'81. During these years the Cape transit 

 circle was employed in observing, in conjunction with Leyden, a list of 

 fundamental stars required in the meridian observation of the stars 

 between declination — 1° and — 20°, contained in Schonfeld's extension 

 of the Burclimusterung. In addition to these, two further lists of stars 

 were observed, one of which had large Z. D. at the Cajie and small Z. D. 

 at Leyden, the stars of the other list culminating near the zenith of the 

 Cape and at small altitudes at Leyden. There were also observed dur- 

 ing these years stars which were employed in the longitude operations 

 connecting Aden and the Cape. {Observatory.) 



Gape catalogue for 1850. — Dr. Gill has also recently published (no date 

 of jmblication) a catalogue of 4,810 stars, theresults of observations made 

 at the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, from 1849 to 1852, under 

 the direction of Sir Thomas Maclear. The right ascensions were ob- 

 served with Dollond's transit, which was mounted in 1828, immedi- 

 ately after the erection of the observatory buildings. The north polar 

 distance observations were made with the mural circle, which was 

 mounted in 1829. " No proper motions are given in the catalogue, and 

 none have been ax^plied to the star places. The catalogue therefore 

 represents the places of the stars at the epoch of observation, but re- 

 duced to the equinox 1850'0." For the purpose of determining sys- 

 tematic errors a comparison is given with the Cape catalogue for 1880, 

 the separate results being given in a column marked "Cape 1880, minus 

 Cape 1850." 



Fundamental stars. — At the meeting of the Royal Astronomical So- 

 ciety on March 13, 1885, " Mr. Downing read a paper on the star places 

 given in the Nautical Almanac. The star places in the Nautical Alma- 

 nac for 1884 were derived from the Nine-Year Catalogue, while in 1883 

 and i)receding years the Seven-Year Catalogue was employed. Mr. 

 Downing has deduced the systematic discordances resulting from the 

 change of catalogues. In considering the R. A.'s he found for 24 stars 

 discordances greater than 0^*05, their mean discordance being 08'064, 

 which seems to indicate inaccuracies in the proper motions employed. 

 If Dr. Auwers's results for these stars' proper motions are substituted 

 for those of Main and Stone, the mean discordance is reduced to 08-042. 

 It seems, then, desirable to adopt the proper motions that are the re- 

 sult of Dr. Auwers's researches. In one of the last volumes of the Ber- 

 liner Jahrbuch, Dr. Auwers has made a comparative study of the po- 

 sitions of fundamental stars contained in the principal ephemerides, in 

 particular the Nautical Almanac. He shows in this article that a suffi- 

 ciently accurate allowance for the proper motions has not always been 

 made. 



