SEQUEL TO THE EPOCH OF NEWTON. 241 



dinary perseverance. He conceived that one of two 

 opposite constellations, the Virgin or the Whale, 

 was the place where its separation must have taken 

 place ; and where, therefore, all the orbits of all 

 the portions must pass. He resolved to survey, 

 three times a year, all the small stars in these two 

 regions. This undertaking, so curious in its nature, 

 was successful. The 29th of March, 1807, he dis- 

 covered Vesta, which was soon found to be a 

 planet. And to show the manner in which Olbers 

 pursued his labours, we may state that he after- 

 wards published a notification that he had examined 

 the same parts of the heavens with such regularity, 

 that he was certain no new planet had passed that 

 way between 1808 and 1816. Gauss and Burck- 

 hardt computed the orbit of Vesta; and when Gauss 

 compared one of his orbits with twenty-two obser- 

 vations of M. Bouvard, he found the errours below 

 seventeen seconds of space in right ascension, and 

 still less in declination (M). 



The elements of all these orbits have been suc- 

 cessively improved, and this has been done entirely 

 by the German mathematicians 32 . These pertur- 

 bations are calculated, and the places for some 

 time before and after opposition are now given in 

 the Berlin Ephemeris. " I have lately observed," 

 says Professor Airy, "and compared with the Berlin 

 Ephemeris, the right ascensions of Juno and Vesta, 

 and I find that they are rather more accurate than 



32 Airy, Rep. 157- 

 VOL. II. R 



