C so 3 
VI. Extracts of two Letters from the Rev. Edward Gregory, 
M. A. Rector of Langar, Nottinghamshire, to the Rev . 
Nevil Maskelyne, D. D. F. R. S . Astronomer Royal ; con- 
taining an Account of the Discovery of a Comet , with Obser- 
vations thereon . 
Read February 7, 1 793, 
.IS ■ , 
Extract of the first Letter , dated Langar, near Nottingham, 
January 10th, 1793. 
J trouble you with this letter to communicate to you such 
observations as I have made of a comet, which I saw on the 
8th instant. The evening of the 8th being very clear, I was 
employed in my observatory, in taking differences of right 
ascension and declination between the planet Venus and 
i Aquarii, when, happening to look towards the north-west 
part of the hemisphere, I saw a star of a hazy appearance, 
and about the size of a star of the second magnitude, in the 
space between the flexure of the Dragon and the foot of Her- 
cules, larger and brighter than I had before remarked in that 
part of the heavens ; which excited my attention so much, as 
to induce me to direct such a telescope to it as lets in much 
light, and is generally used at sea to see objects in the night. 
This star seemed to have a hazy and indistinct appearance in 
the telescope, which immediately led me to suspect it might 
be a comet ; but the twilight yet remaining, I was not quite 
