coo ASTR0N0MICA7 CIRCLE. 



a small hammer, upon a proper tool. The workman holds tke 

 vessel with his right hand with his small tongs, 7 ; and with 

 his left hand, without tongs, takii.g care to turn it round conti- 

 nually. Sometimes he pei forms this operation with a strdke 

 of the hammer; and the complete finish is made by cutting the 

 eciges with scissars, similar to those before described. 



The furnace made use of is a simple forge furnace, and the 

 fuel is chareoal of fir, excited by wooden bellows. 



IX. 



Description of an Astronomical Circle, and some RemarJci on 

 the Construction oj Circular Instruments. By JOHN Pond, 



From the Philos. Transactions, 1806. 



Astronomical Ji HE observations which accompany this paper were made 

 fecfin^dia-"^" at Westbu-y in Somersetshire, in the years ISOO and 1801, 

 meter, With an astronomical circle of two feet and a half diameter, 



constructed by Mr. Throughton, and considered by him 

 as one o( the best divided instruments he had ever made; a 

 drawing of it, with a short description, is anexed to the ob- 

 servations. ( Plate VII.) 

 — applied to When this insrtument came into my possession, I thought I 



de c ini'ie the QQy^\^ ^ot employ it in a more advantageous manner, than in 

 dtxiina ions of , • i , i- 



some principal endeavouring to deternnne the dechnatiolis of some of the 



*'*''^- principal fixed starsf . The various catalogues differed so 



much from each other, and such doubt existed as to the ac- 



, curacy of tho e which were thought most perfect, that the 



declinations '.f few stars could be corsider«?d as sufficiently well 



ascertamed for the more accurated purposes of astronomy. 



The 



* The title of 'his Paper, in the Transactions, is, " On the Decli- 

 nations cf the principal fixed stars, with a description," &c but on 

 account of the extent of the tables of observa ions, I must refer the 

 astronomical reader to lie Transactions for them. The number of 

 stars, observe*.! at Westbury, were 29 ; and of those compared with the 

 Greenwluh observations, 57. — The plate could not be finished till 

 the next Nuinbcr. 



f At that time Dr. Maskclyne's late Catalogue was not published. 



