160 RESULTS OF OBSERVATIONS OF COMETS VI. AND VII. 



the comets distance from the sun and earth was gradually 

 diminishing. On August 25, I received from the Government 

 Astronomer of Victoria, a copy of a Kiel telegram announcing 

 that the comet had been detected at the Royal Observatory, Cape 

 of Good Hope, on the 20th, when its R.A. and declination were 

 13h. 10m. 21s. 1° 8' S. It was found at Melbourne on the 24th and 

 at Windsor on the 25th. It was observed at Windsor with all 

 possible accuracy till the close of October. The comet being too. 

 faint for observation in a bright field, and there being no means 

 for observing with bright wires on a dark field I could not employ 

 the filar micrometer. The accompanying table exhibits the 

 resulting positions from August 25 to October 29. Those for 

 August were determined with a square bar-micrometer on the 

 Cooke 4J inch equatorial. On September 1 a ring-micrometer,, 

 whose mean radius = 242-6", was fitted to the recently mounted 

 Grubb 8 inch equatorial, and with this instrument observations 

 were continued till September 18, when the square bar-micrometer 

 hitherto employed with the 4J inch telescope was adapted to the 

 large instrument. With this micrometer, whose adjustment and 

 errors of form were carefully attended to, the remaining positions 

 were obtained. The comet was at no time a good object for 

 observation, and in consequence of either bright moonlight or haze, 

 such was particularly the case on September 2, 7, 10, 11, 12^ 

 October 6, 7, 11, 25, and 29. On October 25, it approached so 

 close to star No. 59 as to be observed with the greatest difficulty. 

 On the whole I think the positions dependent on the square bar- 

 micrometer will be found more satisfactory than those obtained 

 with the ring, A brief description of the former micrometer will 

 be found in the Introduction to the Results of my Observations, 

 of Comets Fabry, Barnard, and Brooks (No. 1) 1886, published 

 in the last volume of the Society's Journal and Proceedings. 



Comet VII., 1886. 

 At the close of September last, the Australian Observatories, 

 were notified of the discovery of a small comet on the 26th of that 

 month by Mr. Finlay, the first assistant at the Royal Observatory, 

 Cape of Good Hope, who was also the discoverer of Winnecke's 

 Comet at its last appearance. The elements of its orbit were no 

 sooner computed than they were found to bear a strong resemblance 

 to those of the comet discovered by De Vico at the Roman College 

 on August 22, 1844, and observed to the end of that year. The 

 period assigned by Dr. Brunnow to this comet was 5 - 466 years, 

 but the comet has not been seen since 1844, unless indeed Comet 

 VII., 1886 is to be identified with it. There are, however, great 

 doubts as to this identity, inasmuch as the period from the 

 observations of the latter body is found to be much longer than 

 that assigned to De Vico's Comet by Brunnow. The question of 

 identity cannot be settled till the mean motion of the comet is 



