38 REPORT — 1844. 



tions to which the author of the catalogue, in which it is found, considers it 

 to belong, and rejects every attempt at improvement. 



On the maps published by the executors of Flamsteed, there are not any 

 boundaries surrounding the figures that are there drawn : for, all the stars in 

 Flamsteed's catalogue are placed in their true positions (as to right ascension 

 and declination) as given in the British Catalogue, without any boundary 

 lines ; and those who consult the maps are at liberty to draw the boundaries 

 in such manner as they may think most proper. It is the catalogue which is 

 in error, and not the maps • and it is very probable that the editors were 

 aware of this circumstance, having found out the mistake when it was too late 

 to mend it. 



Bode appears to have been the first that drew boundary lines to the con- 

 stellations ; and in so doing, instead of correcting the catalogue and preserving 

 an uniform system of drawing his lines in a simple and regular manner between 

 contiguous constellations, whereby the contour was distorted as little as pos- 

 sible, he introduced the practice (above mentioned, and which has been im- 

 plicitly followed by most of the English map- and globe-makers) of hooking 

 within such limits all the stars that Flamsteed or any subsequent astronomer 

 had inadvertently designated by a wrong constellation ; thus disfiguring and 

 distorting the boundaries and rendering them very intricate, perplexing, and 

 annoying. In his large set of celestial maps, however, which he published 

 about twenty years afterwards, he became sensible of his error, and very pru- 

 dently discontinued this absurd practice, and confined his boundaries to their 

 proper restriction. But the English map- and globe-makers, instead of fol- 

 lowing this laudable example, have not only continued the evil, but have 

 carried the practice to such an enormous and ludicrous extent that the mo- 

 dern celestial charts and globes at the present day exhibit a complete msiss 

 of intersecting and conflicting lines, utterly subversive of the object and de- 

 sign of such a divisional arrangement of the heavens. Harding, in his Celestial 

 Atlas, has avoided this confusion : and so likewise has Argelander in his recent 

 ' Uranometria.' So that there is probably now some prospect of our being able 

 to obtain, in this country, celestial maps and globes freed from all the mis- 

 chievous confusion with which they are encumbered : and if the globes (and 

 also the maps) were confined to such stars only as are visible to the naked 

 eye, their utility and convenience for an ocular view of the heavens would 

 be much improved*. 



In order that our catalogues and our maps (or globes) should speak the 

 same language, and that they should at the same time be clear and intelligi- 

 ble to those Avho consult them for the purpose of identifying the stars in the 

 heavens, it is requisite that the nomenclature of the stars, or, in other words, 

 the boundaries of the constellations, should be placed on a more uniform, 

 regular, and well-defined plan : but, in making this necessary reform, regard 

 must be had (especially in the northern hemisphere) to long-established names 

 and authorities, which by their antiquity and constant use have acquired full 

 possession of the public opinion and favour. Now, it fortunately happens 

 that very material improvements may be made in the present mode of deli- 

 neating the boundaries of these constellations, without encroaching at all on 

 any of the ancient arrangements, and without much alteration in those of 

 more modern date. All that is required will be the correction of some of 

 those manifest errors which have been caused principally by following too 

 closely and implicitly the arrangement and classification of the stars in the 

 constellations in Flamsteed's catalogue ; and which has opened the door to 

 further encroachments by his successors. 



* Argelander 's ' Uranometria' is an excellent pattern for such a system of map-making. 



