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XCIII. Sturgestions for rendering the Labours of Foreign 



Astronotners available in Great Britain. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal. 



ALL persons who are fond of astronomical pursuits must 

 be grateful to those correspondents who occasionally 

 convey important intelligence by means of the Philosophical 

 Magazine. The article Ixxxvii, in the No. for last month, 

 contains much information which probably would have been 

 confined to a few men of science in the metropolis, had not 

 the liberality of the writer communicated it to the pages 

 of your Magazine. The activity of the foreign astrono- 

 mers appears very remarkable ; but from their works being 

 principally written in German, and from the difficulty of pro- 

 curing them, the labours of these philosophers remain in a 

 great degree unheard of by many. It would be a subject 

 worthy the attention of the Astronomical Society, to request 

 their "Secretaries to communicate any circumstances which 

 may be curious or useful, received from the continent, for the 

 infonnation of the distant members. I beg leave to suggest 

 to this Society, how desirable it would prove, if the occulta- 

 tions which are given in the Philosophical Magazine, from 

 Inghirami, for 1824, could be published, as observed by those 

 experienced asti'onomers who have accurately verified the po- 

 sition of their observations. But it would be still more grati- 

 fying if the time of some of these occultations as seen at Green- 

 wich could be made known ; but this is perhaps too much to 

 ask. It would also be extremely advantageous to know the 

 culmination of the moon's preceding limb, in sidereal time, as 

 seen at Greenwich during the early part of the moon, for the 

 purpose of comparing longitudes by means of stars near her 

 course, as mentioned in page 392 of the Philosophical Magazine 

 of last month. The theory of this operation is described at 

 page 85'i! of Woodhouse's Astronomy, &c.; and it would oblige 

 many observers if the formulae for the correction of the pro- 

 cess, which are said (page 392) to have been prepared by Ni- 

 colai, Bessel, &c., could be communicated through die pages 

 of the Philosophical Magazine, as the works of these great men 

 are in the hands of few in this country. Dr. Brinkley's for-^ 

 mula is generally used ; but still, without simultaneous co- 

 operation, both occultations and lunar transits become little 

 more than amusing sights ; for, unless the observed time at 

 Greenwich were accurately known, much uncertainty must 

 remain; as the calculated time, from the imperfections of lunar 

 tables, could not be implicitly relied on, to seconds, in de- 

 duoiiiff lonciiudcs at distant places. It must be remembered 



also, 



