TWENTY-SIXTH CONGRESS, 1839-41. 219 



of telescopes to graduated instruments, and by the use of a 

 clock to note the time at which stars and planets passed, by 

 their apparent diurnal motion, across the middle of the 

 field of view of the telescope. 2. A catalogue of the places 

 of 3,310 stars, with a name affixed to each of them, the 

 selection and nomenclature of which have served as the 

 basis to every catalogue since that time. Nor is it an unin- 

 teresting incident in the progressive history of astronomical 

 knowledge, that when, one hundred years later, Herschel 

 discovered that tlie star which bears his name was a planet, 

 he found it as a fixed star upon the catalogue of Flamsteed. 

 3. Many of Flamsteed 's observations of the moon, reduced 

 as w^ell as was then practicable, were, at Newton's request, 

 communicated to him, to aid in perfecting the theory- 

 deduced from the principle of universal gravitation. " The 

 time," as has been well observed by the present astronomer 

 royal, the Reverend George Biddell Airy, " the time at 

 which these observations were made, was a most critical 

 one — when the most accurate observations that had been 

 made were needed for the support of the most extensive 

 philosophical theory that man had invented." 



Since the death of Flamsteed, the office of astronomer 

 royal has been successively filled by Doctor Halley, who 

 has given his name to the most splendid comet of the solar 

 system, by computing its orbit and predicting its return 

 after a period of about 75 years, already twice verified ; 

 then by Bradley, immortalized by the two discoveries of 

 the aberration of light, and the nutation of the earth's axis ; 

 by Bliss, Maskelyne, and Pond ; the present successor of 

 whom is Mr. Airy — like all his predecessors, among the 

 most eminent astronomers of the age. For the space of 

 nearly two centuries this institution has existed, and has 

 been the seat of continuous observations, scarcely inter- 

 rupted by the intervals between the cessation of the labors 

 of one observator and the commencement of those of his 

 successor ; an arrangement made by the means of assist- 

 ants, which has contributed to distinguish the system of 

 observations pursued at Greenwich from that followed at 

 every other observatory. 



From such small beginnings originated, and thus illus- 

 trious has been the career of the royal observator}'' of 

 Greenwich. Originally attached to the ordnance depart- 

 ment, it was in 1816 or 1817 transferred to the department 

 of the admiralty. The estimates for the annual expense of 

 the observatory are inserted under the " scientific branch " 



