148 Roi/al Astronomical Society. 



its utility still further, the Council have directed that an additional 

 number of copies should be printed, and presented to the Rev. Mr. 

 C'hallis, the director of the Cambridge Observatory, with a request 

 that they might be distributed with the forthcoming volume of the 

 ' Cambridge Observations :' a request with which he has readily 

 complied. 



" It is also with much pleasure that the Council can state that 

 the extension of the Society's ' Catalogue of Stars,' just alluded to, 

 and which has been undertaken at the suggestion and at the expense ' 

 of the British Association, is in great progress, and will probably be 

 completed before the next anniversary. It is intended that this en- 

 larged catalogue shall contain not only every known star in the 

 catalogues of Hevelius, Flamsteed, Bradley, Mayer, Lacaille, and 

 Zach, but also every star, in any of the more modern catalogues, of 

 the sixth magnitude, in whatever part of the heavens it may be 

 situated, and every star in such catalogues not less than the seventh 

 magnitude, within 10° of the ecliptic ; together with every other 

 star that, from its peculiar position, suspected proper motion, or 

 other extraordinary circumstance, may be deserving of being thus 

 recorded, and pointed out for further observation. 



" In the execution of this work, considerable assistance has been 

 afforded by the four several catalogues j^ublished by Mr. Thomas 

 Glanville Taylor, at Madras. The second of those catalogues con- 

 tains nearly all the stars in the Society's catalogue, visible in that 

 latitude ; and the last two exhaust nearly the whole of Piazzi's cele- 

 brated catalogue. The total number of stars contained in these 

 four volumes is upwards of 8800 ; most of which have been observed 

 more than once, and many of them more than five times. The 

 whole have been of essential advantage in completing and perfecting 

 the extension of the Society's catalogue above mentioned : since it 

 has enabled the computers not only to verify the positions of nearly 

 all the stars, but also, in most cases, to deduce the proper motion 

 (if any) that belongs to each of them respectively. The establish- 

 ment of this observatory is highly honourable to the East India 

 Company, and the fruits which it has produced reflect great credit 

 on the zeal and assiduity of Mr. Tajdor, the active superintendent. 



" Another subject also undertaken by the British Association, is 

 the reduction of the stars in the ' Histoire Celeste ' (a work con- 

 taining about 50,000 observations), together with the annual pre- 

 cession annexed to each star. About one-half of this work 

 is already executed ; and, when completed, it will aflferd a ready and 

 convenient reference to almost all the stars (not circumpolar) that 

 are visible in this latitude with an ordinary telescope. The positions 

 of the stars are reduced to the epoch 1800, by means of the very 

 convenient tables of M. Schumacher ; a work which renders it 

 scarce!}^ necessary that the computations should be done in dupli- 

 cate ; for, as every star will be referred to its original authority in 

 the printed work, the astronomer will have an easy and ready mode 

 of verifying any suspected result, and of rectifying any error that 

 may be discovered. 



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