RY OF A SUPPOSED COMET 69 



neighbourhood of H Geminorum, that appeared 

 v Ur-.-r than the rest Being Btruck with it* 

 uncommon magnitude, ha compared it to H Gemin- 

 an-1 the Minall star in the quartile between 

 i un.l (it-mini, and finding it so much larger 

 than either of them, suspected it to be a comet . . . 

 The sequel has shown that my surmises were well 

 proving to be the comet we have lately 

 observed/' By the method he followed he wan 

 abled to distinguish the quantity and direction of t !. 

 iia comet in a single day, to a much 

 greater degree of exactness than could have been done 

 in so short a time by a sector or transit instrument ; 

 ; r or two were intervals long enough 

 to show that it was a moving body, and, consequ 

 had its size not pointed it out as a comet, the change 

 of place, though so trifling as 2J seconds per 

 would have been sufficient to occasion the discos 



he had done all he could do, Herschel 

 i.lr.l his paper by saying, " I failed not to 

 immediate notice of this moving star, and was happy 

 to surrender it to the care of the Astronomer-Royal 



rs, as soon as I found they had begun 

 observations upon it Th< moving star was not a 

 t. It was a wanderer, who had been seen before 

 an.l rl-i-iil.-l as a fixed star. The planet was what 

 >w called Uranus. 



announcement of the discovery sent a fl< 

 a. m t In .n_;li .ill the observatories of Europe, 

 asing when it was funl that 

 could not agree on what or who t 



<>m its first appearance English astrom; 

 ved it to be a pi am t that had long been wanted 



