Abstract
UNPUBLISHED OBSERVATIONS AT RADCLIFFE OBSERVATORY, 1774–1838.—In a pamphlet containing a reprint of an article in Monthly Notices, vol. lx. pp. 265–293, Dr. A. A. Rambaut, Radcliffe observer at Oxford, calls attention to a very valuable collection of astronomical observations which are preserved at the Radcliffe Observatory, but have not been reduced or published. Two of the Oxford astronomers, Profs. Hornsby and Robertson, spent a large amount of labour in reducing Bradley's observations made at Greenwich from 1750–1762, and further continued his work by themselves maintaining a systematic and regular series of observations for sixty-five years, from 1774–1838. These were all made with the instruments supplied by Bird to the Radcliffe Observatory at its installation, consisting of two quadrants each of 8-feet radius, a transit instrument of 8-feet focal length, and a zenith sector of 12-feet focus. The observations have all been methodically copied in a similar form to their printed edition of Bradley's observations, and contain altogether about 130,000 transits and 60,000 zenith distances. Dr. Rambaut states that his staff at present could not undertake the reductions; but, in order to show the extreme importance of the data available, he has made a selection of them, giving the probable errors compared with other observers.
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Our Astronomical Column . Nature 62, 64 (1900). https://doi.org/10.1038/062064a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/062064a0