new celestial Body discovered by Dr. Olbers. 261 
been the lately discovered object, I might not lose the oppor- 
tunity of an early acquaintance with its condition. An obser- 
vation of the star marked A, in particular, was made with a 
very distinct magnifying power of 460, and says, that it had 
nothing in its appearance that differed from what we see in 
other stars of the same size ; indeed Dr. Olbers, by men- 
tioning in the communication which I received, that with such 
magnifying powers as he could use it was not to be distin- 
guished from a fixed star, * had already prepared me to 
expect the newly discovered heavenly body to be a valuable 
addition to our increasing catalogue of asteroids. 
The 25th of April I looked over my delineations of the pre- 
ceding evening and found no material difference in the situation 
of the stars I had marked for examination ; and in addition to 
them new asterisms were prepared, but on account of the 
retarded motion of the new star, which was drawing towards 
a period of its retrogradation, the small change of its situation 
was not sufficiently marked to be readily perceived the next 
day when these asterisms were again examined, which it is 
well known can only be done with night-glasses of a very low 
magnifying power. 
A long interruption of bad weather would not permit any 
regular examination of the situation of small stars : and it was 
only when I had obtained a more precise information from the 
Astronomer Royal, who, by means of fixed instruments, was 
already in possession of the place and rate of motion of the 
new star, that I could direct my telescope with greater accu- 
* Der neue planet zeigt sicli als ein stern zwischen der 5 ten mid 6ten grosse und ist 
im fernrohr, weriigsten mit den vergrosserungen die ich anwenden kann, von ein-cn 
fixstern nicht zu unterscheiden. 
MDCCCVII. 
M m 
