832 
is compofed of two terms, of which, for 
the prefent, we have only the fum, but it 
has been the mean of eftablifhing, in the 
. motion of the moon, at different periods, 
a regularity which had never before been 
obtained. 
On the 25thof July, a deputation from 
the Board of Longitude made its report 
to the Firft Conful. on the labours of 
Burg, and on the prize of fix thoufand 
francs. I reminded him that he had 
cauled the firft prize to be doubled, and 
that it would be worthy of his chara&er 
to do the fame with the prefent—He in- 
ftantly complied. ‘The Miniter Chaptal, 
who was prefent, urged me to engage 
Burg to come to live at Paris, where he 
fhould have an annual penfion of three 
thoufand francs. He would have been an 
excellent co-operator in improving the {ci- 
ence of aftronomy in France, where it is 
fo much cultivated: but this excellent 
man preferred his own country, though 
with lefs advantage. His LunarTables are 
about to be put to the prefs, as well as 
the new tables of the fun, calculated by 
Delambre ; we have fent them to Dr. 
Mafkelyne, the Aftronomer-royal of En- 
gland, who will be enabled by them to 1m- 
prove the Nautical Almanack, which has 
long fince been of the greateft importance 
to the art of navigation. Delambre’s re- 
port will fhortly appear in the Connoiffance 
des Temps for the year 13. 
It has been determined to print, at the 
expence of the Republic, the Arabic text, 
and a tranflation by C. Cauffia, of all the 
obfervations, which are in the manufcript 
of Ibn Junis, lent to us by the Batavian 
Republic, together wath an extract from 
a part, which it was not deemed neceflary 
to tranflate or print. C. Caufiin is the 
firft of all the profeffors of Arabic, who 
has rendered his knowledge of real utility. 
T blamed them fifty years ago, for tranflat- 
ing romances only. 
Our obfervations on the tranfit.cf Mer- 
“cury over the fun’s difc, on the gth of No- 
vember, fucceeded to our wifhes, which 
was of confequence, as it will not be feen 
again at Paris till the 5th of May, 1832. 
The accuracy of my Tables of Mercury is 
completely confirmed by thefe obferva- 
tions. The egrefs of the center, accord- 
ing to a mean of all the obfervations, tcok 
place at 7’ 34’/ after twelve; and the lon- 
gitude of Mereury, which I then dedu- 
ced, was 7s 16° 179" at 21n 2/40" mean 
time of the true conjunétion ; taking into 
the account the correction to be made in 
the tables of the fun, which were obferv- 
ed by my nephew to be 10%4. The geo- 
Hiflory of Aftronomy for the Year 1802: 
(May 1, 
centric latitude in conjunStion was 56”. I 
have had the moft fatisfa€tory confirma- 
tion of the theory of Mercury, which IE 
read tothe Inftitute on the sft of January, 
1796, and more details on this fubject 
will be found in the Memoirs of that 
body. 
M. Caffella, Phyfician to the King of 
Naples; and M. Bugge, Aftronomer- 
royal at Copenhagen, have fent me accu- 
rate obfervations of this tranfit. 
The folitice has been accurately obferv- 
ed with whole circles by Delambre, 
Burckhardt, and Lalande, my nephew ; 
the mean of four hundred obfervations 
gives 23° 28’ 7”, or 7” more than in my 
Tables; latt year it was only 6”3 with 
this agreement we ought to be fatisfied. 
C. Duc-la-Chapelle has publifhed, in 
the fourth volume of the Memoirs of the 
Inftitute, folfticial obfervations, which 
give 31’ for the diminution of the obli- 
quity of the ecliptic in a hundred years. 
Mechain has again found 10” lefs for the 
obliquity at the winter-folltice. 
C. Vidal has fent his obfervations of 
the new planets, and many others ; he 
has finifhed fome zones of circumpolar 
ftars, which had not been completed in 
the Hiforre Celefie Francoife, publifhed in 
1801. The inferior conjunction of Venus, 
obferved in December by Burckhardt and 
Lalande, has given for the correction of 
my Tables+29’, which will not make 10/ 
in the longitude, as feen from the fun. 
But, as the Tables of Venus had not been 
calculated with the perturbations, and as 
Lalande, jun. propofed to undertake this 
work, Chabrol furnifhed him with a table 
of the equation calculated to tenths and 
feconds, which was an effential prelimina- 
ry. We have forty years exaét obferva- 
tions of Venus, and thefe being from 
1761 to 1801, wil] give us the motion of 
Venus as accurately as the Babylonian 
obfervation, made 2072 years ago, re- 
fpecting which there is fome doubt, as I 
have already explained in the Mémoires 
de I’ Academie, 3785, p. 250. 
The oppofition of Mars, which took 
place on the 24th of December, could not 
be obferved ; but the ob‘ervations of that 
night afforded means of correcting my 
nephew’s Tables 5”, which make only two 
in the heliocentric longitude. 
The difappearance of Saturn’s ring, ' 
which will take place in 1803, has been 
preceded by a fingular phenomenon. The 
anjes were on the point of becoming in- 
vilible, and it was with the greatefi diffi- 
culty that Mechain could obferve them in 
the morning of the 20th of December. 
Flauguergue 
