S4 REPORT — 1844. 



Appendix. 

 Revision of the Cotistellations*. 



The advantage and importance of having the boundaries of the constella- 

 tions of the stars distinctly and properly dehned on our maps and globes, must 

 be evident to every one that has occasion not only to refer to so useful and 

 convenient an auxiliary to the practical astronomer, but also to consult a 

 catalogue of stars. For unless due attention is paid to some clear and well- 

 organized plan of arrangement, and to some regular method of drawing the 

 lines that constitute the limits of the constellations, much confusion and in- 

 tricacy soon enters into the system, and not only does the whole become an 

 unintelligible mass of intersecting and undefinable boundaries, but the nomen- 

 clature of the catalogues also becomes sadly deranged. This is no ideal an- 

 noyance ; for the present state of all our modern maps and globes bears 

 evident proofs of the existence of the evil to which I have here alluded ; and 

 the catalogues likewise partake largely of this confusion. But the time has 

 arrived when this inconvenience, now become so troublesome and perplexing, 

 can be no longer tolerated. The extended state of the present catalogue (in 

 which there are a number of additional stars selected from various works, 

 differing very essentially in the nomenclature of the stars which they con- 

 tain) requires that every star thus introduced should be located on maps in 

 which the boundaries of the constellations are constructed and drawn (or 

 assumed to be constructed and drawn) upon some definite and systematic 

 plan ; so that the name of the constellation, to which the star may be thus 

 found to belong, should be correctly affixed thereto, and thus show at once 

 its true and accurate locality in the heavens. This can only now be done 

 by a general revision of the whole system. 



Ptolemy drew his figures on the globe in such a manner that the stars 

 should occupy the positions that he has designated in the descriptions of 

 them in his catalogue : and the boundary of each figure thus drawn was, in 

 fact, the limit of the constellation intended to be represented. For, when he 

 observed any stars that were beyond the outline of his figures, he denomi- 

 nated them uji6p(pwToi, unformed; and this method was long followed by his 

 successors. But, in the time of Tycho Brahe, this plan was in some measure 

 departed from, and a more comprehensive extension of the original limits 

 adopted, by including the unformed stars within the boundaries of one or 

 other of the contiguous constellations ; so that all the constellations abutted 

 against one another, and the whole of the heavens was thus occupied by one 

 portion or another of some known constellation; the ^5r«res remaining (the 

 same. Some confusion however soon crept into this arrangement: for it 

 appears that one of Ptolemy's unformed stars in Libra (543 of my catalogue 

 of Ptolemy) was very justly placed by Tycho within the boundary of the 

 same constellation ; in which arrangement lie has been followed by Flam- 

 steed, who designates it 20 Libra. But Bayer has unfortunately placed it in 

 the constellation Scorpio, an arrangement which has been adopted by He- 

 velius, Lacaille and others. Thus some confusion in this part of the boun- 

 daries of these two constellations has been introduced, and which continues to 

 the present day. 1 have adopted Tycho's arrangement, and made the dis- 

 cordant catalogues agree therewith ; as it cannot be tolerated at the present 

 day that this confusion should be perpetuated, or even now exist. When 

 Hevelius formed his catalogue, he observed many stars, in the large spaces 

 between Ptolemy's figures, that had not been previously noticed ; and in ' 



* This section forms the substance of a Paper that was read at a meeting of the Royal As- 

 tronomical Society, on May 12, 1843. 



