145 
REPORT ON ASTRONOMY. 
\ 
Observations. Declinations by Schwerd, in the Astronomische 
Nachrichten. Southern stars by Rumker, in several parts of 
the same work; and by Fallows and Rumker, in the Pliil . 
Trans, for 1824 and 1829. Declinations by Bianchi, in the 
Milan Ephemeris 1830. And very lately a catalogue of 632 
southern stars by Rumker, with constants for the reductions, 
has arrived in this country. 
In the Greenwich Observations 1829, Mr. Pond published a 
catalogue of 720 stars lately observed at Greenwich; it is un¬ 
derstood that he is now occupied with the extension of it. 
Mr. Groombridge observed a great number of stars, principally 
circumpolar, which have been reduced at the expense of the 
British Government, but are not yet published. Dr. Robinson 
is, I believe, now employed in re-observing the whole of Bradley’s 
stars. 
Bessel has for several years been much employed in observing 
(with Reichenbach’s circle) all stars as far as the 9th magnitude 
in zones. In general, the transits of these stars are observed 
at only one wire; their places therefore are only approximate. 
The unreduced observations, with the elements of reduction, 
are published in the Konigsberg Observations. These zones 
have been extended from 15° south declination to 45° north 
declination. 
In 1825 the Berlin Academy invited astronomers to join in 
forming charts of the region of the heavens 15° on each side of 
the equator ( Astr. Nachr. No. 88.). It was proposed that each 
observer should take one hour of right ascension ; that having 
formed a chart including all the stars of the Histoire Celeste 
and Bessel’s Zones , he should put in, by estimation only, all the 
stars that could be seen with one of Fraunhofer’s telescopes 
of 34 lines aperture. Some parts of this are in progress: three 
hours (one by Mr. Hussey, one by the Padre Inghirami and 
Capocci, and one by Gobel,) have been completed and are en¬ 
graved. 
Tables for the reduction of stars were published by Dr. Pear¬ 
son in 1824; by Mr. Baily in 1827; by Mr. Groombridge and 
Sir John Herschel, in the Mem. Astr. Soc. vol. 1. and by seve¬ 
ral others. But in the Astr. Nachr. No. 4. Bessel proposed a 
method which for most purposes seems likely to supersede 
every other. The reduction of the right ascension as well as 
of the declination of a star may be expressed by the sum of 
four products, one term of each depending only on the year 
and day, the other depending only on the place of the star. 
The numbers depending on the day have been published in the 
German periodical works ; and in Schumacher’s Hiilfstafeln 
K 
