ay innocuous
to the Observatory; it would however be under restrictions which might
be felt annoying to the authorities of the Railway, but whose
relaxation would almost ensure ruin to the Observatory."--"The
meridional observations of Mars in the Autumn of 1862 have been
compared with those made at the Observatory of Williamstown, near
Melbourne, Australia, and they give for mean solar parallax the value
8.932", exceeding the received value by about 1/24th part. (A value
nearly identical with this 8.93" has also been found by comparing the
Pulkowa and Cape of Good Hope Observations.)"--"The results of the new
Dip-Instrument in 1861 and 1862 appear to give a firm foundation for
speculations on the state and change of the dip. As a general result,
I may state as probable that the value of dip in the middle of 1843
was about 69 deg.1', and in the middle of 1862 about 68 deg.11'. The decrease
of dip appears to be more rapid in the second half of this interval
than in the first; the dip at beginning of 1853 being about
68 deg.44'."--With reference to the re-determination of the longitude of
Valencia, it is stated that "The concluded longitude agrees almost
exactly with that determined by the transmission of chronometers in
1844; and entitles us to believe that the longitudes of Kingstown and
Liverpool, steps in the chronometer conveyance, were determined with
equal accuracy."--"The computations, for inferring the direction and
amount of movement of the Solar System in space from the observed
proper motions of 1167 stars, have been completed. The result is, that
the Sun is moving towards a point, R.A. 264 deg., N.P.D. 65 deg. (not very
different from Sir W. Herschel's, but depending much in N.P.D. on the
accuracy of Bradley's quadrant observations), and that its annual
motion subtends, at the distance of a star of the first magnitude, the
angle 0.4". But the comparison, of the sum of squares of apparent
proper motions uncorrected, with the sum of squares of apparent proper
motions corrected for motion of Sun, shews so small an advance in the
explanation of the star's apparent movements as to throw great doubt
on the certainty of results; the sum of squares being diminished by
only 1/25th part."--"I had been writing strongly to Maclear on the
delays in publishing both the geodetic work and the Star Catalogue at
the Cape of Good Hope: he resolves to go on with these works. In
December I am still very urgent about the geodesy."