234 Volcano in the Moo}u--~Quere rvspecting Tables of Vesta. 



new light on the theory of comets, and divest it of much of the 

 uncertainty that seems to exist, in regard to the form of their 

 eccentric orbits and their periodic returns. 



VOLCANO IN THH MOON. 



In the proceedings of the Royal Society (given in our last Num- 

 ber) it will be seen that on the 8th February the discovery of a 

 volcano in the moon was announced to that distinguished body. 

 Bv the following paragraph, copied from a Plymouth newspaper, 

 the same or another volcano seems to have been observed also 

 bv another person on the 16th of January. 



" Mr. Cooke, of Stonehouse, having constantly made observa- 

 tions on the moon for the last twelve months, discovered, about 

 nine o'clock on the night of the 16th January (two days before 

 the full, and the only bright night of the moon), an effusion of 

 smoke, which lasted about a minute, and appeared like the flut- 

 tering of a bird. It passed over the moon before it evaporated, 

 and must have fore-shortened, as it seemed in effect to have 

 passed over the whole disc, from the place whence it arose, on 

 the east of the spot Menelaus and near Plineas; but the effu- 

 sion prevented the exact spot from being ascertained. Mr. 

 Cooke had nearly finished a painting of the face of the moon in 

 oil, seven feet in diameter, when he learnt from a friend in the 

 neighbourhood, of the discovery of a volcano, which has induced 

 him to delay it j but it is very likely the same." 



QUERE RESPECTING TABLES OF VESTA. 



To Mr. Tilloch. 

 Sir, — Give ms leave, through the medium of your excellent 

 publication, to avail mvself of the opinion of some of your readers 

 who may be fully instructed with respect to the management of 

 M. Daussy's Tables of Vestn, inserted in the Connoissaiice des 

 Terns for 1820. I had amused myself during the winter in cal- 

 culating the orbit from January to April, and had a design of 

 communicating it to your Magazine ; but as Mess. Groombridge 

 and Bode just at the moment published the positions of the 

 planet, I deemed it necessary to transmit my computation. Up- 

 on comparing my positions, however, with those of Mr. Groom- 

 bridge (for tlie meridian of Greenwich ?) I perceive mine to differ 

 in almost every instance ; and though the error in no case 

 amounts to more than three minutes of a degree in right ascen- 

 sion, and sometimes only to a few seconds, yet, as I conceive 

 the faqlt to be mine, I feel anxious to discover the cause. There 

 are two notes, one at page 219, and the other page at 255 of the 

 Connoiisance des Terns, neither of which I clearly understand ; 

 and from this circumstance the defect probably arises. The for- 

 mer 



