tjl(j PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1784. 



such variations in the form and lustre of it, as may arise from the particular si- 

 tuation of each star. 



Various methods may be pursued to come to a full knowledge of the sun's place 

 in the sidereal stratum, of which I shall only mention one as the most general 

 and most proper for determining this important point, and which I have already 

 begun to put in practice. I call it gaging the heavens, or the star gage. It con- 

 sists in repeatedly taking the number of stars in 10 fields of view of my reflector 

 very near each other, and by adding their sums, and cutting off" one decimal on 

 the right, a mean of the contents of the heavens, in all the parts which are 

 thus gaged, is obtained. By way of example, I have joined a short table, ex- 

 tracted from the gages contained in my journal, by which it appears, that the 

 number of stars increases very fast as we approach the Via Lactea. 



n. p. d. 78 to 80° 



Thus, in the parallel from Q2 to Q4 degrees north polar distance, and r. a. 

 15 h 10 m , the star gage runs up from QA stars in the field to 18.6 in about an 

 hour and a half; whereas in the parallel from 78° to 80° north polar distance, 

 and r. a. 11, 12, 13, and 14 hours, it very seldom rises above 4. We are how- 

 ever to remember, that with different instruments the account of the gages will 

 be very different, especially on our supposition of the situation of the sun in a 

 stratum of stars. For, let ab, fig. 6, be the stratum, and suppose the small 

 circle ghlk to represent the space into which, by the light and power of a given 

 telescope, we may penetrate; and let ghlk be the extent of another portion, 

 which we are enabled to visit by means of a larger aperture and power; it is evi- 

 dent, that the gages with the latter instrument will differ very much in their ac- 

 count of stars contained at mn, and at kg or lh; when with the former they 

 will hardly be affected by the change from mn to kg or lh. And this accounts 

 for what a celebrated author says concerning the effects of telescopes, by which 

 we must understand the best of those that are in common use. M. De La 

 Lande's Astron. § 833. 



It would not be safe to enter into an application of these, and such other 

 gages as I have already taken, till they are sufficiently continued and carried all 

 over the heavens. I shall therefore content myself with just mentioning that 

 the situation of the sun will be obtained, from considering in what manner the 

 star-gage agrees with the length of a ray revolving in several directions about an 



