70 Hisiori/ of Astronomy for the Year 1S06, 



rapidly to the south. It was not again seen until the 25th 

 of" January. 



71ie following were the elements calculated on the 529th 

 of January: inclination, 35° 6' ; nodes, 10' 22° 13'; peri- 

 helion, 3'G°57'; passage, 2Sth of December, at 20 hour,?, 

 movement retrograde: perihelion distance 1*080. It was 

 then visible in the evening, having returned at 29° of south 

 declination, and at 20° of right ascension ; and they were 

 able to calculate its elements with more precision. 



I have spoken in my History of Astronomy for 1 805, of 

 the 95th comet, which was discovered on the 20th of Oc- 

 tober by Messrs. Bouvard and Pons, and which was observed 

 to the 6th of November. M. Macaroil, of the Isle of France, 

 •wrote upon the 1 gth of December 1805 that he had observed 

 a comet on the I4ih towards the feet of Paon. M. Dupe- 

 loux observed it on the 13th, 14th, and 15th. The nucleus 

 "was 1' in diameter, the atmosphere 45': it was seen before 

 the stars of the third magnitude; it was much more beau- 

 tiful than when it was observed at Paris ; and these observa- 

 tions, made at a time when it could not be seen in Europe^ 

 will be very useful in correcting its elements. 



M. Burckhardt gave, in the fourth volume of the Mcca- 

 nique Celeste of M. Delaplace, an explanation of the sin- 

 gular phenomenon of the comet of 1770, which the attrac- 

 tion of Jupiter rendered visible that year, having been pre- 

 viously invisible, and this attraction has rendered it invi- 

 sible in future. The comet of 1762, according to M. Burck- 

 hardt, only agreed at 5', but the correction of refraction 

 went the length of "/ , and he rectified the elements in the 

 following manner : 



Nodes - - - IP 18° 33' 5" 

 Inclination - - 85 38 13 

 Perihelion - - 3 14 2 

 Transit 28th May, S'' ll'. 

 Distance, r00904S5. 

 M. Eesscl has made some long researches respecting the 

 comet of 1769 ; he found the period at about 2100 years : 

 this results from the whole of Messier and Maskelyne's ob- 

 servations. 



