it8 Hi/iory of AJlronomy for the Yeg.r iSoi. 



to him a determination of the longitude of Florence, which 

 had been very badly determined, notwithftandiiig the cele- 

 brity of that capital, and the great number of eminent men 

 it has produced. 



M. Kautfch, a piarift of Lcutomifehel in Bohemia, has 

 finiflied an immenfe labour on the eclipfes of the fun. He 

 has calculated, for the whole of the iQih century, charts in 

 which are feen all the circumftances of thefe ecliples for every 

 country of the earth where they are vifiblc, in the fame 

 manner as they have been iuferted in our Ephemerides 

 fince 1750, and at prefent in the Conno'iJJance des Temps by 

 the care of C. Duvaucel. I wifhed to liave the means of 

 pubiilhing the labour of M. Kautlch, whofe zeal and ability 

 defervc every praife. 



C. Goudin has alfo publiflied an analytical method for 

 eclipfes : he has applied it lo ibe eclipfe of 1847, which will 

 be the mod coniiderable of this century, and has calculated 

 all its circumftances for the whole furface of the earth. 



The conjun6lions of the planets are not interefting to 

 aftronomers, but they afford a fpedlacle to the public, efpe- 

 cially when conne6ted with other events. Meffier, therefore, 

 nemarked, that when the cannon announced to us the hap- 

 f/inefs of peace on the 3d of Oftober, the Moon, Venus, 

 Jupiter, and. Saturn, were near that beautiful ftar in the 

 Lion's heart. 



We no longer live in times when fuch phsenomena are 

 conddered as of importance, but in 1186 the aitronomers 

 announced terrible revolutions in coufequence of the con- 

 juntlion of all the planets. I engaged C Flauguergucs to 

 calculate this phaenomenon cxailly by our new tables, and 

 he has found that on thq i5ih of September at 5 h. am. 

 all the planets were between 6 figns, and 6 figns 10 degrees 

 of longitude. 



Thele arc not complete coniuuiSlions ; exaft conjunftions 

 of all the planets are incalculable; a fketch of thefe returns, 

 in which I employed only days for the duration of the re- 

 volutions, gave me 17 millions of millions of years as the 

 interval between one conjun6tion and another. What would 

 the cafe have J)cen, had i taken into account the hours and 

 minutes ? 



As the tables of Mars were the moft incorreft, C. Le- 

 franipois has been employed on them fix months; he has 

 calculated all the obfervations, and has employed all the 

 new perturbations. He has carried his precifion to tenths 

 offeconds, and has at length conftruded tables of Mars, 

 which will leave very little lo be wilhed for, and which have 



appeared 



