Reply to Remarks on the Nautical AlnHtnac. 207 



nageable as reflecting telescopes, and perform as much as those 

 which he makes of 10 feet, with two object glasses." The 

 marking the word common in this manner, sufficiently implies 

 that the telescopes in question are now become uncommon. 



7. P. XXV. " For the mtan obliquity of the ecliptic, the Pre- 

 face of the Nautical Almanac certainly renders the Astronomer 

 Royal responsible. The equations are computed from De- 

 iambre's tables." 



8. P. xxvi. " * Ephemeris, by Schumacher. A regular 

 suTpply skoitld have been sent over to this country in the first 

 instance." It not only was so sent, but was advertised for 

 sale by the bookseller to the Board of Longitude, long before 

 the appearance of Mr. Baily's astronomical tables and remarks, 

 which it is presumed he will think it still less necessary " to 

 continue in any future year," than before the present attempt 

 was made to shew their superfluity and frivolity, as far at least 

 as regards the errors and omissions attributed to the Nautical 

 Almanac. 



Additional note, from Schumacher's Journal. 



Professor Schumacher, in the 6th Number of his Astronomical 

 Newspaper, gives a favourable opinion of the general utility of 

 Mr. Baily's tables, which have been communicated to him by 

 the author ; but with respect to the Nautical Almanac he ob- 

 serves, (p. 94,) " I understand that the Board of Longitude has 

 within a few years reduced the price of the annual volumes as 

 much as possible, in order that they may the more easily be 

 purchased by seafaring persons, and they would therefore 

 probably not be willing to add to them each year an Astrono- 

 mical Supplement, which must make the price unavoidably 

 greater. I cannot agree with the author in his comparison of 

 tha Nautical Almanac, with the Connaissance des Tems, with 

 Bode's Jahrbuch, with the Ephemerides of Milan, and with those 

 of Vienna, which last have been discontinued from the year 

 1806; and I should doubt whether occultations are particu- 

 larly appropriate to the determination of the longitude at sea. 

 The seaman requires to know his longitude without delay, and 

 as near as possible to the place of observation ; and even if he 

 should happen to be an able computer, which is not very com- 

 monly to be expected, the calculation of a lunar occultation 

 might take up so much of his time as to be wholly impracti- 

 cable while the result would be of any value ; and the great 

 advantage of corresponding observations of the same occulta- 

 tion at different places is wholly lost to him." 



[No doubt it was from considerations of this nature that Dr. 

 Maskelyne and the Board of Longitude were induced to dis- 

 continue the insertion of the greater part of the occultations 

 formerly indicated in the Nautical Almanac. It now remains to 



