?S HiitovT^ of Astronomy for the Year 180(7. 



Slimmer, and he finds 23° 27' 57",4 for ISOO, which only 

 diflcrs by 0'''.3 from what M. Dclanibre found by his 12 sol- 

 stices, mailing- a sHght increase to the refractions of Urad- 

 Icy, and diminishing by one second the latitude of Paris, 

 which will be 48" 5Q' 13". M. dc Laplace supposes that the 

 JifTcrcnce between winter and summer proceeds from our 

 taking the interior thermometer in place of the exterior 

 thermometer, which in his opinion ought to have given the 

 true measure of refraction. 



'i'hcse four useful collections of observations, the Ephe- 

 iiicrldes of'Ilcrlin, of Vienna, of Milan, and the-Con- 

 noissance des Terns, have been continued. 



England does not aflbrd us the same assistance : it seems 

 no observations arc made any where except at Greenwich, 

 and the three kingdoms all depend on Dr. Maskelyne : but 

 it must be confessed that the observations he publishes 

 every year are worthy of compensating for every deficiency. 



The Connoissance des Terns for 1803, which made its ap- 

 pearance on the 13th September, 1S06, by the cares of M. 

 Delambre, begins a new collection of these useful epheme- 

 rides. The volume is thicker, the subjects it embraces more 

 extensive, and the calendar has 15 months, in arder to form 

 a continuation to the volume for the year \b : we there find 

 all the observations made by M. Bouvard in the year 12, 

 1S03 and 1804, with the fine instruments belonging to the 

 Imperial observatory. 



M. Delambre has given in detail the measure of the de- 

 gree in Sweden ; I shall here give the result, which is 57200 

 toises in place of 57422 which the French found in 1736; 

 and I shall add a reflection which seems to be useful to ex- 

 plain this ditlcrence. They had not at that time the means 

 of verifying the parallelism of the glasses, as I did not de- 

 scribe tiie proving glass until 1704, when I published the 

 first edition of my Astronomy. 



I have given in this volume a table of the proper move- 

 menls for 500 stars, calculations for the eclipses for 1S05 

 and 1806, and conjunctions of Venus. 



M. Dclan)brc has there given a history of astronojuyj 



notice* 



