126 On the North Polar Distances 



are, what I suppose to be, accurate prints of the moon ; and 

 there is one also in the Description of the Copernican Sy- 

 tem, &c. by William Deane, London, 1738. Except these 

 two publications, and Russell's expensive work, I do not at 

 present recollect any, with maps of the moon, which can be 

 called good ; but probably there may be many unknown to 

 me. What appears to me to be wanting, is an accurate 

 figure of the moon, on a sheet by itself, which can be easily 

 purchased. If such a figure does not exist, would not the pro- 

 moting the publication of one be worthy the attention of the 

 Astronomical Society of London ? I shall be obliged to any 

 of your readers who will inform me where the best maps of the 

 moon can be met with, either in English or foreign books. 



9th December, 1822. An INQUIRER. 



Note. — We can inform our respected correspondent, that 

 Dr. Gruithuissen has lately given a Map of the Moon in 

 Bode's Astron. Jahrbuch, 1825; with a Letter explanatory. 

 It is a Lithographic drawing, and might be copied and re- 

 printed in this country, at a trifling expense. — Edit. 



XXIX. On the North Polar Distances of the Principal 

 Fixed Stars. 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine ajid Journal. 



T^HE portion of your readers, who take an interest in the 

 -■• advancement of astronomy, are greatly obliged to your 

 correspondent, who, for a considerable time past, has furnished 

 so many valuable articles fi-om the foreign journals ; by which 

 a knowledge of the exertions used on the continent for the 

 improvement of that science has been diffused through these 

 islands. 



The article in ycur last Number, " On the declination of 

 the fixed Stars, from Professor Bessel," is particularly inter- 

 esting. It is the first regular account we have had of the 

 results in declination of the new Meridian Circles of M. 

 Reichenbach. The reports of these results had occasioned 

 considerable interest here; as they appeared to differ very 

 considerably from the results obtained by Mr. Pond and Dr. 

 Brinkley, which nearly agreed with those of MM. Oriani and 

 Piazzi. 



I request permission to make a few remarks on this subject. 

 The object of them is to show that, great as the discordances 

 appear, there is nothing can be deduced from them unfavour- 

 able to the respective instruments, or to the skill and care of 



the 



