Abstract
THE MELBOURNE CATALOGUE.—We have received the “First Melbourne General Catalogue” of stars, which is founded upon the observations taken with the Transit Circle under the direction of Mr. Ellery, the Government Astronomer, at the New Observatory of Melbourne, between the middle of the year 1863 aRd the end of 1870. It has been reduced and prepared for publication by Mr. E. J. White, the first assistant, from the materials printed in vols. ii. iii. and iv. of the Melbourne Observations. Vol. i. contained a catalogue of 546 stars resulting from the meridian observations taken previous to the removal of the Observatory to its present site, and called the “Wiiliamstown Catalogue:” in the new publication we have the positions for the beginning of 1870, of 1227 stars, with few exceptions observed at least three times, and accompanied by the terms of precession to the third order, proper motions, and Bessel's reduction-constants (as in the British Association Catalogue), with the synonyms in Lacaille, Piazzi, Brisbane, and Johnson. Great care appears to have been taken in calculating the precessions from the mean year of observation to the epoch of the catalogue, and a detailed account of the process employed is given iri the introduction. The proper motions of the stars have also been discussed where the means were available, the more uncertain results being distinguished from those possessing greater claim to acceptance by enclosure in parentheses.
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 12, 87–88 (1875). https://doi.org/10.1038/012087e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/012087e0