A METHOD 



OF CORRECTING THE APPROXIMATE ELEMENTS 



OF THE 



ORBIT OF A COMET, 



AND THE APPLICATION OF THE SAME 



TO OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE OBSERVATORY OF 

 TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN, 



ON THE COMET OF JULY 1819. 



BY JOHN BRINKLEY, D. D. F. R. S. M. R. I. A. 



AND ANDREWS' PROFESSOR OF ASTRONOMY IN THE 

 UNIVERSITY OP DUBLIN. 



Read, April 17, 1820. 



Whatever difference of opinion there may be among astro- 

 nomers, relative to the respective convenience of the different 

 methods of obtaining approximate elements of the orbit of a Comet, 

 there can be none, I think, relative to the superiority of M. Laplace's 

 method of correcting the approximate elements when found. But 

 this method may, as it appears to me, be considerably improved in the 

 following manner. 



