84 Caroline Lucrctia HerscJwl. [i788-i79j>. 



DR. HERSCHEL TO SIR J. BANKS. 



Sin, 



The last time I was in town, you expressed a wish to 

 see my observations on the comet which my sister, Caroline 

 Herschel, discovered in the evening of the 21st of last 

 December, not far from /3 Lyrae. 



As she immediately acquainted the Reverend Dr. Mas- 

 kelyne and several other gentlemen with her discovery, the 

 comet was observed by many of them. The Astronomer 

 JRoyal in particular having, I find, obtained a very good set 

 of valuable observations on its path, it will be sufficient if I 

 communicate only those particulars which relate to its first 

 appearance, and a few other circumstances that may perhaps 

 deserve to be noticed. 



Dec. 21sf, 1788. About 8 o'clock I viewed the cornet 

 which my sister had a little while before pointed out 

 to me with her small Newtonian sweeper. In my instru- 

 ment, which was a ten-foot reflector, it had the appearance 

 of a considerably bright nebula, of an irregular round form, 

 very gradually brighter in the middle, and about five or six 

 minutes in diameter. The situation was low, and not veiy 

 proper for instruments with high powers. 



Dec. 22nJ. About half-after 5 o'clock in the morn- 

 ing I viewed it again, and perceived that it had moved 

 apparently in a direction towards 8 Lyra?, or thereabout. I 

 had been engaged all night with the twenty-foot instrument, 

 so that there had been no leisure to prepare my apparatus for 

 taking the place of the comet ; but in the evening of the 

 same day I took its situation three times 



In every observation I found the small star which accom- 

 panies ft Lyra? exactly in the parallel of the comet. 



These transits were taken with a ten-foot reflector, and 

 the difference in right ascension, I should suppose, ma}' be 

 depended upon to within a second of time. The determi- 



