1802. ] 
herfelf with intrepidity, and which-even 
a ftate of pregnancy did not interrupt. 
Their fon is preparing to fucceed them-in 
this honorable employment, and already 
has made fome calculations with fuccefs ; 
I truft that Ifaac Lalande will be the third 
aftronomer of his name. 
Citizen Delambre has taken a great many 
declinations with’ a ‘multiplying circle. 
Piazzi announces a catalogue of 7000 
ftars, which he has obferved at Palermo ; 
and Citizen Cagnoli is preparing another - 
of soo ftars, obferved with very particu- 
lar attention at Paris and Verona. 
Citizen Vidal, whofe intrepidity and 
accuracy I have frequently celebrated, has 
{ent me the feries of ftars in the fauthesn 
hemifphere, which cannot be well feen at 
Paris, and of thofe in the polai regions 
which are wholly imvifible to us, alfo a 
very fingular triduum. On the 23d of 
April and fome following days, he faw 
all the planets at the fametime. He has 
added fome obfervations refpecting Mer- 
ae and the fun, in. the two folftices; 
and with an ingenious magnet, he has made 
a great number of obfervations on the de- 
clination of the needle. 
M. Burg, aftronomer at Vienna, who 
has obtained the prize offered by the Infti- 
tute on the inequalities of the moon’s mo- 
tions, continues to be employed on the 
fame fubje&. He has re-calculated with 
three thoufand obfervations the twenty- 
four inequalities of the moon’s motions, 
and has added fome new things which 
had been fuggefted by Citizen Laplace. 
Thefe tables came to hand on the eighth 
of December, the errors will not amount 
to 15", and the prize of three thoufand 
francs, propofed by the Committee of 
Longitude to the perfon who fhould firft 
‘conttruét a fet of good tables of the moon, 
will be well merited by this able and in- 
defatigable aftronomer. The Committee is 
itill engaged in verifying them : but all 
the obfervations made at Gotha, a -little 
time fince, confirm the fidelity of thefe 
tables. For it-was at the Obfervatory of 
Gotha, the aftronomical fan&tuary of Ger- 
many, that M. Burg finifhed his work. 
He was invited thither by Baron de Zach, 
becaufe he might command every thing 
that could facilitate his labours. 
What remains to be done to complete 
the theory of the mioondepends, perhaps, 
in fome meafure, on the employment of 
fuperior powers in calculating the eccen- 
tricities and forces: on this Citizen Burck- 
hardt is actually engaged. 
Some Arabian obfervations, taken in 
the tenth century, are now applied to the 
The Hiftory of Aftronomy, by C. Lalande. — 219. 
moon’s motions. The manufcript which 
I fortunately recovered from the papers of 
Jofeph Delifle, made me anxious to {ce 
the original, which was>depofited at Ley- 
den, and with a fight of which the Minif- 
ter cf the Batavian Republic has favoured 
me. Citizen Cauffin has examined this 
manulcript: itis not complete: it only 
contains obfervations already known, 
Thefe are no inttruétions in it by which 
we might afcertain the nature of the in- 
ftruments made ule of by the Arabs, or 
their modes of obfervation; but it fur- 
nifhes us with fome intereftiug corrections 
to the copy in our pofiefion, and which 
has been aQually printed in the Arabic 
and French languages, at the prefs be- 
longing to the Republic, by command of 
the Minifter of the Interior. 
The obfervations takenat the fummer fol- 
ftice have determined the obliquty of the e- 
cliptic tobe 23°28'64”",which is 5” more than 
I had made itinmy Tables. Multiplying 
circles enable us to afcertain this to 
the exactnefs of a fecond, and I now feel 
confident, that the diminution about which 
there have been fo many difputes is equal 
to 33” in acentury, which is very. far 
from that which was affigned to it by Caf- 
fini, in confequence of inaccurate obferva- 
tions taken by bad inftruments. —_- 
The winter folftice gives us the oblis 
quity at 8” lefs: this is probably owing 
to the refraction, which is not fufficiently 
known for fmall heights.. Although the 
obliquity of the ecliptic be fo nearly de- 
cided, yet the Berlin. Academy has pro- 
pofed the variation as the prize-fubject 
for the year 1802. The advertifement 
ftates, that there will be expe&ed re- 
fearches the moft intereiting, and explana-. 
tions the moft important, upon a fubject, 
on which there fill remain many dificul 
ties to refolve, relative tothe variation of 
the obliquity of the ecliptic. ; 
All the planets have, in the courfe of 
the prefent year, been eclipfed by the 
moon, as was noticed by M. Reggio in: 
the Milan Ephemeris, which rarely hap- 
pens. We had not a good view of any of 
them, except the eclipfe of Venus on the 
r3th of May. But we were well indem- 
nified by the eclipfes of the beautiful ftar 
in the ear of corn in the Virgin’s hand, 
which were feen in feveral places’ on the 
30th of March and the 24th of May, and 
which were made ule of to verify the lon- 
gitudes of many countries. Theeciipfes of ' 
four ftars of the firft magnitude are the » 
mott important of all others for thefe kinds 
of decifions. 
I have diligently continued the tafk 
4 which 
