new celestial Body discovered by Dr. Olbers. 263 
supposed that I proceeded now with Vesta (which name I 
understand Dr. Olbers has given the asteroid), as I did before 
in the investigation of the magnitudes of Ceres, Pallas, and 
Juno. 
The same telescopes, the same comparative views, by which 
the smallness of the latter three had been proved, convinced 
me now that I had before me a similar fourth celestial body. 
The disk of the asteroid which I saw was clear, well defined, 
and free from nebulosity. At the first view I was inclined to 
believe it a real one ; and the Georgian planet being con- 
veniently situated so that a telescope might without loss of 
time be turned alternately either to this or to the asteroid, I • 
found that the disk of the latter, if it were real, would be about 
one-sixth of the former, when viewed with a magnifying 
power of 460. The spurious nature of the asteroidal disk, 
however, was soon manifested by an increase of the magni- 
fying power, which would not proportionally increase its dia- 
meter as it increased that of the planet ; and a real disk of the 
asteroid still remains unseen with a power of 63b. 
May 23. The new star has advanced, and its motion is di- 
rect ; its situation with respect to the two small stars a b, is 
given in figure 4. 
Its apparent disk with a magnifier of 460 is about 5 or 6 - 
tenths of a second ; but this is evidently a spurious appearance, 
because higher powers destroy the proportion it bears to a 
real disk when equally magnified. The air is not sufficiently 
pure this evening to use large telescopes. 
May 24. With a magnifying power of 577 I compared the 
appearance of the Georgian planet to that of the asteroid, and 
with this power the diameter of the visible disk of the latter 
M in 2 
