1796.] 
Although I have endeavoured to tranf- 
late LALANDE’s entertaining nafrative 
with care, and fidelity, I yet deein it 
proper to accompany fome terms of art ~ 
with the original French. I have alfo 
found it necefflary to abridge the paper, 
which contains thirty-four and a halt 8vo 
pages, in the original, in order to procure 
it admiffion into your entertaining and 
inftcuétive Mifcellany ; but I have in 
no cafe omitted any thing that appeared 
to me to be of importance. You will, 
doubtlefs, be aware that nothing of this 
kind has yet appeared in the Englifh 
language. Your very humble fervant, 
London, Fiuly 2, 1796. VIATOR. 
HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY FOR 1794, 
BY JEROME LALANDE, ASTRONO- 
MER TO THE PRENCH REPUBLIC. 
THE citizen MefMfier did not difcover 
any new comets during the preceding 
year; but although no remarkable pic- 
nomena ot thiskind have cccurred, there 
are a great number of obfervations and 
ufeful labours worthy of mention; and 
we have experienced loffes which muft 
necefiarily excite the regret of thofe who 
are interefted in the progrefs of aftro- 
romy. 
T am often afked the following quef- 
tion ; Are we to have any eclipfes this 
year ¢ People in general 
that lunar eclipfes are of very little im- 
portance to aitronomy, on a2 
ee » 7 
re Oo 
ae 
; ecount of the 
{mall degree of precifion of which our 
ebfervations are fulceptible, and rhat the 
eclipfes of the fun are lefs important, 
and lefs exaét, than thofe of the princi- 
pal ftars. 
There has only been one eclipfe of the 
fun, and that of little con Ce, } 
courfe of the laft twe 
itars’ The eclipfe of the 
eon the 12th Pluviofe (3x 
we did mot fee it at Paris, but it wa 
ferved at Touloufe, by citizen Darquier, 
and at Montauban, by citizen 
Chapelle. I have difcovered that 
] 
au) 
nuary) ; 
the 
For Paris, was 11° 30°25". Ever fince 
1752, It has been my conftant habit 
to calculate eclipfes as foon as they oc- 
curred, which was not cufiomary before 
my time, on account of the extreme 
length of the procefs. During nearly a 
whole century we had the calculations 
of two eclipfes only inferted in the Me- 
moirs of the Academy (in the volumes 
publifhed in 1744 and 1755). I have 
Lalande’s Hiftory of Aftronomy, 1794, 
55%) 
been induced to this from the facility of 
the operation, in confequence of the dif- 
covery of a mode for fimplifying it ; aud 
in the courfe of the laft obfervation, af- 
ter 40 years’ praétice, I was enabled to 
avoid no lefs than fix diftin& operations ; 
in fhort, I have reduced the labour in 
fuch a manner, as to be able to calculate 
the conjunction in an hour and a half. 
Citizen Delambre, in a Memoir on the 
equation of time, has proved, thar La~ 
caille, Mafkelyne, and myfelf, or rather 
that all the aftronomers along with us, 
have been led into an error, refpeéting 
the admiffion of the fecond part of the 
uutation in the calculation of the equa- 
tion of time, and in (redufant al Equateur } 
confining to the equator the {mall equa- 
tions of the fun. (Affronomie, art. 971,) 
But fomething very remarkable and 
important has occurred in the courfe of 
1794, which, perhaps, was never known 
before ; this is no lefs than ten eclipfes 
of the ftars of the firft magnitude, Al- 
debaran and Regulus; all of which were 
vifidle at Paris within the fpace of about 
thirteen months; feveral of ‘them have 
been obferved with great accuracy; and 
among others, that ef the 18th Frimaire 
(Noveinber 8th) by citizen Meffier. Some 
of thefe eclipfes have been alfo noticed 
at Marfeilles, by citizen Tulis; at Tou- 
loufe, by citizen Darquier; at Montau- 
ban, by citizen Duc la Chapelle: I have 
calculated them all, and they will afford 
ic means of comparifon for the ber- 
ter verification of the longitudes of the 
places where they have been obferved ; 
‘mately acquainted with the figure of 
he earth, as M. Cagnoli has exprefsly 
demonttrated in the Journal des Savans 
for £792. 
A more difficult and important achiev- 
ment in aftronomy ftill remained to be 
attempted: this was an exact review of 
all the ftarry heaven, and the determi- 
nation, which I had firft undertaken, in 
1789, with my nephew, citizen Lefrane 
cois, of the pofitions of 30,000 ftars. 
This has been continued the whole of 
this year with equal zeal: we have al- 
ready afcertained more than 29,000, and 
the able praétitioner who affifts me, has 
difplayed a degree of addrefs and pre- 
cifion of which I fearcely know any ex- 
ample. His wife, the female citizen Le- 
francois, feconds the zeal of her hufband, 
by means both of her obfervations and 
calculations ; two or three hundred are 
often the produce of one fingle, cold, and 
laborieus 

