REPORT ON ASTRONOMY* 
119 
of the most remarkable is that pointed out by Cacciatore (. Ast. 
Nadir. No. 113). In a place where Lacaille, Piazzi, and Cac¬ 
ciatore himself, had formerly seen a star, Cacciatore in 1826 
saw a nebula ; and this nebula has since been observed by 
Capocci and Dunlop. The only doubt is whether the tele¬ 
scopes with which it was seen before were good enough to dis¬ 
criminate between a star and a nebula ; and on this point I 
cannot pretend to decide. 
In 1826 a new star (extremely small) appeared in the great 
nebula of Orion, and was observed by Struve and Herschel 
{Ast. Nadir. No. 138, Ast. Soc. Trans, vol. 2). Whether it is 
a periodical star or a new star does not appear certain. 
Nothing remarkable, so far as I know, has been added to 
our knowledge of variable* stars. Many remarks are to be 
found scattered in the German periodicals, and some in the 
English Transactions, but none which appeared to be worth 
extracting. 
VI. The planetary tables in highest repute about the year 
1800 were those published in Lalande’s Astronomy. A review 
of these will show that astronomers hardly yet expected Tables 
to represent the places of the heavenly bodies with accuracy, 
but rather confined their use to approximate prediction ; in fact, 
the theories of perturbation w r ere used no further than was 
necessary for this purpose. The Solar Tables (calculated by De- 
lambre,) were founded on Laplace’s theory and the Greenwich 
observations; the Lunar Tables (Mason’s of 1780, with very small 
alterations,) were founded on Mayer’s theory; but the coefficients 
of the inequalities were obtained from observation. The Tables 
of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, (by Delambre,) were founded 
on Laplace s theory, as the magnitude of their equations made 
it impossible to dispense with them ; but those of Mercury, 
Venus, and Mars, (by Lalande,) had no effects of perturbation. 
The Tables of Jupiter’s satellites (by Delambre,) were founded 
on Laplace’s theory and one thousand observations. Besides 
these Tables, however, there were others by Zach, Oriani, 
Triesnecker, &c., which were also much esteemed. 
In several volumes of the Berliner Jahrbuch at the beginning 
of the century, formulae are investigated for the perturbations 
of Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars. In the Berliner 
Jahrbuch for 1806, Wurm investigated the correction of the 
mass of Venus from the perturbations of the earth ; he found 
* I have lately found that the star 42 Yirginis, which was observed by Flam¬ 
steed and described as of the 6th magnitude, but which was lost in the last cen¬ 
tury, still exists in the same place, but is not brighter than the 11th magnitude. 
