1803.] 
Flauguergue loft fight of them on the 
z6th, but they wilk foon re-appear. On 
the 28th of June, the fun will pafs through 
the plane of the ring, and on that account 
they will not be feentill the 3d of Au- 
guft, at which time the earth will pals to 
the north of the ring, and permit us to 
fee the furface of it illuminated by the fun. 
Chabrol.and Flauguergues have calcu- 
lated tables of aberrations and nutations 
for fix hundred ftars of the fundamental 
catalooue, which my nephew inlerts every 
year in the Connoifiance des Temps, and al- 
ways with improvements. 
Citizen Lalande, jun. continues to ob- 
ferve the right afcenfions and declinations 
of a great number of fars not fufficiently 
known ; and Madam Lalande is going on 
with the reduétions which fhe promifed 
for the 50,000 fiars ; 1500 will be found 
in the Connoiffance des Temps for the year 
13, which will foonappear. M. Bode has 
publifhed an account of 10,000 in the ca- 
talogue of 17,000, which accompany the 
large and beautiful atlas in twenty fheets, 
which has already been announced. 
I gavean account laft year* of the labours 
undertaken by the Swedifh aftronomers, to 
afcertain the degree of the meridian under 
the polar circle. M. Melanderhielm, not- 
withftanding he was 76 years of age, 
direéted this enterprize. In 1801, they 
had fixed on ftations, ereéted fignals, and 
built two obfervatories; and, between the 
6th of February, and the 8th of April, 
1802, they meafured the bafe on the ice 
of the river Torneo, in fpite of the great 
cold. ‘They finifhed the meafurement of 
the angles of the triangles by the begin- 
ning of September, and then proceeded 
northwards, to commence their aftronomi- 
cal obfervations. We may therefore very 
foon expect to fee the refult of this new 
meafure. 
Mechain is, in confequence of the con- 
fular decree, about to undertake the mea- 
furement of the meridian as far as the 
ifland of Cabrera, which is forty leagues 
fouth of Barcelona; by thefe means, the 
forty-fifth degree, which it is particularly 
intereiting for us to be acquainted with, 
will be a mean of the whole interval. 
The Portuguefe have begun to diftin- 
guith themfelves in this fcience. M. De- 
monfort has fent us calculations of all 
the eclipfes of the fun vilible at Lifbon, 
during this century. M. Monteira de Ro- 
* Particulars relating to the two new pla- 
nets will be found in various parts of the 
Monthly Mag. fee vol. xii. p. 88, 317—Vvol. 
xill. p. 150, 224, 273, 366, 514——vol. xiv. 
p. 117, 119, &c, &c. 
Hiftory of Afironomy for the Year 1802. 
353 
cha, new tables of Mars, with all the 
perturbations ; the equation is 10° 41” 
39”, which is 4” greater than that in the 
tables of Lalande, my nephew. Damoi- 
feau is bufy at Lifbon in calculating a 
Nautical Almanack for the year 1806. L 
have defired him to wait for thenew Tables 
of the Sun and Moon, which will foon be 
printed. ; 
We have received a defcription of the 
obfervatory at Coimbra, from which it 
appears, that they have a fector of ten 
feet, a five-feet meridian tele(cope, anda 
three-feet-and-a-half quadrant, divided by 
Troughton, of London. From M. Col- 
fali, of Parma, we have received the al- 
tronomical Ephemeris, to which the au- 
thor has added a detailed account of the 
two new planets; and he follows my exe 
ample, in calling them the Piazzi and Ol- 
bers, as a mark of refpect due to the per- 
fons who difcovered them. 
Van Swinden has fent a Dutch Memoir 
on the new Meafures, which had taken 
him much time; and he has obtained a 
decree for eftablifhing them in the Bata- 
vian Republic. Mr. Mackay has pubs 
lifhed in England, a curious work on the 
longitude. 
Van Swinden propofes to publith a Me- 
moir on Reflecting Circles, whichhe is de- 
firous of introducing into the Dutch na- 
vy, and another on Marine Time-keepers. 
So long ago as the year 1774, I went to 
Holland to folicit the introduction of af-’ 
tronomy in navigation; the Stadtholder 
and Grand Penfionary promifed to fecond 
my views: my work on this {cience was 
tranflated into the Dutch language, but 
without producing any effect, notwith- 
ftanding the need which navigators had of 
it ; hereafter there is reafon to believe that 
aftronomy will be cultivated there in an 
effectual manner, 
Van Swinden explains in this work all 
the methods by calculation, by graphical 
operations, and by iniftruments, the cor- 
rections made by Mackay to, the methods 
of Borda and Dunthorn ; thofe of Kraft 
and of Douwes, of Stiendra. He has alfo 
added a collection of tables neceflary to 
navigation. M. Mendoza has already 
publifhed two large collections of tables 
on this fubject, to which he has added a 
new method of finding the latitude, by 
two heights taken at a diltance from the 
meridian. We have received the Vienna 
Ephemeris for 1803, which contains new 
tables of the moonby M. Friefnecker, but 
it is evident that he has {cen thoie of Burg, 
which have been noticed before. In the 
Berlin Ephemeris for 1895, M. Bode has 
collected 
