Notices respecting New Books. 383 



become acquainted with the fact that this condensed catalogue has 

 been brought up to the date of publication by the industrious 

 author, and thus supplies the hiatus created by the ' Bedford Cata- 

 logue ' being out of print ; indeed the ' Bedford ' is now becoming 

 a record of the past, exceedingly valuable as showing the state of 

 this branch of astronomy in 1844, but inadequate to the wants of 

 the working amateur in 1873. 



The first edition of the ' Celestial Objects ' was marked by a fea- 

 ture almost unique, the only parallel being Tables of Lunar objects 

 (mostly from Schroter) in the late Sir David Brewster's Supple- 

 mentary Chapters to Eerguson's 'Astronomy,' published in 1821, 

 accompanied by a map of the moon by Mayer, a predecessor of 

 Schroter. Mr. "Webb embellished his first edition with an admi- 

 rable lunar map from Beer and Madler's Mappa Selenographica, 

 which for clearness of detail and facility of reference can hardly be 

 surpassed, and gave the names of the 404 objects which are found 

 on the German map, accompanied with short descriptive notices of 

 the most important. It was the publication of this map and cata- 

 logue which drew that attention to the study of the moon's surface 

 which has resulted in a revised impression of the map, containing 

 ninety additional numbers referring to as many new names in the 

 list. An appendix includes the latest information bearing on tele- 

 scopes, observations of the Sun,Venus, the Moon, Jupiter, Comets, 

 and the so-called fixed stars. 



We apprehend that no amateur astronomer would willingly be 

 without this valuable compendium of his science. 



Turning from Amateur to Government work, we regret to find, 

 from the B,eport of the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, that no- 

 thing additional is to be given to the Eoyal Observatory, Edinburgh. 

 It appears that an extensive task is projected — that of forming a 

 general catalogue of Edinburgh stars from the earliest days of the 

 activity of the Observatory. The personal staff consists of the 

 Astronomer Royal for Scotland and two assistants only, the daily 

 duties being the computation of meteorological observations from 

 fifty-five stations of the Meteorological Society of Scotland, the ob- 

 servation of stars for time, and its distribution electrically by time- 

 ball, time-gun, and controlled clocks. A new time-gun has been 

 established in Dundee, and a new controlled clock added to the pri- 

 mary series of the Observatory, the gift to the Edinburgh Univer- 

 sity of a private gentleman of liberal mind and intelligent interest 

 in science. It is principally in connexion with the new equatorial, 

 now nearly complete, that the Astronomer Eoyal for Scotland de- 

 plores the want of further aid from Government. Speaking of the 

 pressing difficulties arising from want of funds, he says that the 

 determination of Government places him in the position of an un- 

 fortunate artillery officer who should have received a big gun, of 

 perhaps the most approved wrought iron and steel construction in 

 itself, but without the means of moving it, without powder and 

 shot, and yet should be expected by the public to be continually 

 firing it with immense success at all sorts of objects throughout the 

 whole year. 



