of ascertaining the Magnitude of small celestial Bodies. 6 3 
That they are beyond comparison smaller than any of the 
seven planets cannot be questioned, when a telescope that will 
show a diameter of £ of a second of a degree, leaves it unde- 
cided whether the disk we perceive is a real or a spurious 
one. 
A distinct magnifying power, of more than 5 or 6 hundred, 
has been applied to Ceres, Pallas, and Juno, but has either left 
us in the dark, or at least has not fully removed every doubt 
upon this subject. 
The criterion of the apertures of the mirror, on account of 
the smallness of these objects, has been as little successful ; 
and every method we have tried has ended in proving their 
resemblance to small stars. 
It will appear, that when I used the name asteroid to denote 
the condition of Ceres and Pallas, the definition I then gave of 
this term* will equally express the nature of Juno, which, by 
its similar situation between Mars and Jupiter, as well as by 
the smallness of its disk, added to the considerable inclination 
and excentricity of its orbit, departs from the general condi- 
tion of planets. The propriety therefore of using the same 
appellation for the lately discovered celestial body cannot be 
doubted. 
Had Juno presented us with a link of a chain, uniting it to 
those great bodies, whose rank in the solar system I have also 
defined,' f by some approximation of a motion in the zodiac, 
or by a magnitude not very different from a planetary one, it 
might have been an inducement for us to suspend our judg- 
* See Phil. Trans, for 1802, p. 229, line 10 , 
f Ibid, page 224, line 3 of the same Paper, 
