British Association Catalogue of Stars. 207 



astronomers to additional exertions in perfecting all that was 

 possible. 



This argument fortunately prevailed ; and the present paper 

 is one of its expected fruits. 



On the British Association Catalogue of Stars. 



The Catalogue of Stars published by direction of this Asso- 

 ciation in 1845, has long established its place as a valuable 

 work of reference, and it is therefore highly important that 

 any errors which it may contain should be made known and 

 corrected. 



It contains the places of 8377 stars, brought up to 1850, 

 from the best data available at the time ; and all possible care 

 appears to have been used in collating the different authori- 

 ties, so as to obviate error. The great majority of places may, 

 therefore, be considered as very exact ; but to those of a con- 

 siderable number, especially of the southern stars, there was 

 some doubt attaching, because of their dependence on the de- 

 terminations of Lacaille or Brisbane, neither of which, from 

 the imperfection of the means employed, can be considered as 

 coming up to the standard of accuracy expected at the present 

 day. 



A thorough revision of these was therefore obviously de- 

 sirable, and I had planned such a revision some time before 

 my arrival at Madras in July 1849, and commenced it within 

 the month of my taking charge of the Observatory. There 

 was a manifest propriety in the selection of Madras as the 

 place of revision, inasmuch as Taylor's observations at that 

 observatory had been made the original ground-work of the 

 Catalogue. 



My plan was to determine, by at least three observations 

 with each instrument (5-feet transit and 4-feet mural circle), 

 the place of every number between north polar distance 40° 

 and 155° to which the slightest doubt attached ; in fact, all 

 those within that range which had not been observed by Taylor. 

 The north circumpolar stars I considered would be better fixed 

 in Europe, and Mr Johnson, I knew, had taken them in hand. 

 A few stars were, however, observed beyond the limits above- 



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