382 . Analysis of Books. (Jury, 
(not calumniating her, as the Printer’s devil has made it,) at Madras, five are 
provided with corresponding sights at the Greenwich observatory, and six with 
the same at the Cambridge observatory. From these the Madras longitude comes 
out 5 hours, 21 minutes, 3°7 seconds. 
For the latitude we have 160 observations N. P. D. of selected stars with the 
mural circle by direct vision, and 171 by reflection from a trough of mercury ; the 
extreme difference amounts to 6”, and the latitude deduced from the whole is 
13° 4’ 9-21 N. 
The comet of January, 1831, was followed as accurately as the extreme faintness 
of the object would admit, from the 7th January to the 20th February : its position 
was as follows : 
h™ °s. 
Jan. 8. Comet’s A. R. 17 29 27 N. P. D. 102° 34’ 10” 
Feb. 20. do. 12 38 49.9 79 23 52.6 
The last fifty pages (one third of the volume) are occupied by a valuable and 
important table of the places of the fixed stars, with reduction of the Madras cata- 
logue to the Ist January, 1831, and the differences of each star in A.R.and N.P. D. 
from the Greenwich and the Astronomical Society’s Catalogues. 
“© Of 423 comparisons of right ascension, between the Madras and Greenwich ca- 
talogues, there are 376 cases in which the difference does not amount to two-tenths 
of a second in time; of the remaining 46, there are 34 within three-tenths of a se- 
cond ; these have been carefully re-examined and found to be affected with a much 
less probable error than this amount ; of the 12 cases which exceed seconds 0.3, three 
are confirmed by the Astron. Society’s catalogue, and four only require further ex- 
amination.’”’ This evidence speaks highly of the value of the Madras results, and 
they are not diminished by the larger proportion of discrepancies with the extended 
catalogue of the Astronomical Society, in which many stars have been brought 
forward from the less perfect tables of 1755 and 1800. “ Out of 863 comparisons 
which this catalogue affords, there are 615 which do not exceed half a second ; 
of the remainder many are confirmed by the Greenwich catalogue, or by subse- 
quent observations at Madras in 1832.” : 
In north polar distance the same accuracy prevails: out of 489 comparisons 
with Greenwich, 197 differ less than 1/5; 122 less than 2/5 3 and 115 less than 
‘40; and out of 1114 comparisons with the Astronomical Society’s catalogue, 
693 come within 4” ; 315 between 4” and 8” ; and 105 exceed 8”. 
In a few years, therefore, we may confidently expect the “ Madras Catalogue of 
fixed Stars” to be appealed to as authority equivalent to that of either Green- 
wich or Berlin. In the name of every lover of the sublime science in this coun- 
try, we would strongly recommend Mr. Taylor to publish annually, in advance 
(and we offer him our columns for the purpose), a short and authentic ephemeris 
of the principal celestial occurrences, to be attended to by astronomers in India, 
such as_occultations of stars by the moon ; Jupiter’s Satellites 3 Oppositions of 
the planets ; transits and eclipses, &c. These should all be calculated for the 
meridian of Madras, to which as the nearest point of corresponding and nearly 
simultaneous observation, our observation should be referred. Meantime every 
Indian astronomer should provide himself with the volume before us, as containing 
besides the catalogues of stars, a variety of useful and practical formule for 
the correction and reduction of observations. 
