» 24 P rf >fij(P> r Bote's Account of the Meeting 



ASTRONOMY. 



The following account of the objects difcufled by Lalande 

 and the German aftronomers, &c. who met laft fummer at 

 Gotha, has been publifhed by Profeflbr Bode of Berlin, in 

 his Agronomical Almanack for the year 1801. 



" In the month of January 1798, Lalande gave public 

 notice that he intended, in the courfe of the Summer, to 

 make a tour to Gotha, partly to fee the celebrated obferva- 

 tory at that place, and partly to pay a vifit to his learned 

 friend and old correfpondent Major Von Zach. On 

 this occafion he wifhed, in particular, to form a perfonal 

 acquaintance with feveral German aftronomers, fome of 

 whom had long kept up an epiftolary correfpondence with 

 him ; and many of them, among whom I was one, received 

 the .mod flattering invitation to meet him. 



" I rcfolved to undertake this jaunt; to which I was en» 

 couraged, in particular, byM.VonHahn of Remplin, who, 

 however, was not able to accompany me. I accordingly 

 obtained his majefty's permiffion, and having learned that 

 Lalande, with his niece, Madame le Francais, had arrived at 

 Gotha on the 25th of July, I fet out on the 7 th of Auguft, 

 by Leipfig, Naumburg, and Erfurt ; and on the 9th reached 

 Gotha, where I had the pleafure of becoming perfonally ac- 

 quainted with the long celebrated and meritorious French 

 aftronomer and his learned niece, and of embracing my 

 worthy friend Von Zach. At the .duke's court I met with 

 the moft gracious reception ; but the unfavourablenefs of the 

 weather deprived me, in a great meafurc, of the fatisfadtion 

 of ufing the noble inftruments in the obfervatory; for, dur- 

 ing the time which I fpent there fo agreeably, the atmo- 

 fphere was overcaft, and ftorms and rain prevailed. The 

 aftronomers and others prefent were : Profeflbr KKigel, Pro- 

 feflbr Gilbert, and M. Pifter fecretary of the poft-office, 

 from Halle ; Profeflbr ScyfTer, from Gottingen ; M. Kohler, 

 and M. SeyfTert, from Dreidcn ; M. Schaubach, from Mein- 

 mizen: and M. Feer ar/hitcct, from Zurich. The other 

 9 German 



