CHAP, ii.] S Lough. The first Comet. 69 



ALEX. AUBERT, ESQ., TO MISS HERSCHEL. 



LONDON, 1th August, 1786. 

 DEAR Miss HERSCHEL, 



I am sure you have a better opinion of me than to 

 .think I have been ungrateful for your very, very kind letter 

 of the 2nd August. You will have judged I wished to give 

 you some account of your comet before I answered it. I 

 wish you joy, most sincerely, .on the discovery. I am more 

 pleased than you can well conceive that you have made it, 

 and I think I see your ivonderfully clever and wonderfully 

 amiable brother, upon the news of it, shed a tear of joy. 

 You have immortalized your name, and you deserve such a 

 reward from the Being who has ordered all these things to 

 move as we find them, for your assiduity in the business of 

 astronomy, and for your love for so celebrated and so 

 deserving a brother. I received your very kind letter about 

 the comet on the 3rd, but have not been able to observe it 

 till Saturday, the 5th, owing to cloudy weather. I found it 

 immediately by your directions ; it is very curious, and in 

 every respect as you describe it. I have compared it to a 



fixed star, on Saturday night and Sunday night 



***** 



You see it travels very fast at the rate of 2 10' per day 

 and moves but little in N. P. D. These observations were 

 made with an equatorial micrometer of Mr. Smeaton's con- 

 struction, which your brother must recollect to have seen at 

 Loam Pit Hill. I need not tell you that meridian observa- 

 tions with my transit instrument and mural quadrant must 

 have been much more accurate. I give you a little figure 

 of its appearance last night and the preceding night upon 

 the scale of Flamsteed's Atlas Ccelestis [here follows the 

 .sketch-figure]. 



By the above, you will see it will be very near 19 of 



