( 372 ) 



seen from an examinination of Newcomb's elaborate investigation, 

 laid down in his "Astronomical constants" p. 148 — 151. 



Therefore I thonght it best to leave ont an independent determination 

 of the coefficient of the parallactic ineqnality. For in the first place 

 the investigations of the last yeai-s have yielded a value of the solar 

 parallax that must be pretty accurate and. in the second place the 

 direct determinations of the parallactic inequality that are entirely 

 or partly free from the disadxantage mentioned, namely those of 

 Battermann ^) from occultations observed at Berlin and those of 

 Franz') from transit observations of the crater Mosting ^1 made at 

 Königsberg, give results which agree satisfactorily with the most 

 probable value of the solar parallax. 



Whilst as this most probable value we may consider ct = 8". 796, 

 the investigations of Battermann and Franz yield: 



Battermann 1884—85 rr = 8".794 

 „ 1894—96 8. 775 



Franz 1892 8. 770') 



On the other hand NEWco:\rB derived from the transit observations 

 of the limbs by eliminating as far as possible the systematic errors: 

 Neavcomb 1862—94 rr = 8."802. 



I have adopted jz = 8". 796, hence as the correction of the value 

 used ultimately by Hansen in the Tables de la Lune: drr = — 0".120, 

 whence as correction of the coefficient of the principal term of 

 the parallactic inequality in the mean longitude: 



cfP=— 14.10 X rf'T^ = + i"-69 

 and P= — 124".01 



The correction of the value adopted by Newcomb becomes: 



5. I now proceeded as follows. The residuals A « for each year 

 were arranged according to the observed limb and the true age 

 of the moon expressed in days. In this way each year yielded 

 25 groups of residuals and for each of them the mean value was 

 derived. 



1) H. Battermann. Beo})achtnr.gs-Ergebni.';se der Stevmvarle zn Bfilin No. 5. 

 Berlin 1891. 



H. Battermakn, Beobachtungs-Ergebnisse der Sternwarte zu Berlin No. 11. 

 Berlin 1902. 



2) Astron. Nachr. Bd. loG. p. 3.bi. 



3) I had overlooked the discussion by Fr.\nz of the observations of Mosting 

 A made at Göttingex 1891—93 (Astron. Nachr. \o\. 144 p. 177). The com- 

 bined result from Kömgsberg and Göttlngen is: t = 8".805. {Added 1903 Dec.) 



