Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 5, BUR-CHI

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obferved 350 fouthern ftsrs not vifible in our borizoxi.
•The fame labour was repeated by F Noel in 1710,
who publhhed a new catalogue of the fame liars con-
ftrutted for the year 1687.
Bayer, in his Uranainetria, publifhed a catalogue of
1160 liars, compiled chiefly from Ptolemy and Tycho,
in which every liar is marked with fome letter of the
Greek alphabet; the biggeli liar in any conllellation
being denoted by the flrit letter, the next by the fe-
cond, &c. and if the number exceeds the Greek al¬
phabet, the remaining liars are marked by letters of
the Homan alphabet, which letters are preferved by
Flamfteed, and by Senex on his globes. The cele¬
brated Hevelius compofed a catalogue of 1888 liars,
1553 of which were obferved by himfelf; and their
places were computed for the year 1660.
The ball and greateli is the Britannic catalogue,
compiled from the obfervations of the accurate Mr
Flamlieed j who for a long feries of years devoted
himfelf wholly thereto. As there was nothing want¬
ing either in the obferver or apparatus, we may look
on this as a perfect -work fo far as it goes. It is to
be regretted the impreflion had not paffed through his
own hands : that jnow extant was publilhed by autho¬
rity, but without the author’s confent : it contains
2734 liars. There was another publilhed in 1721?,
purluant to his tellamentj containing no lefs than 3000
liars, wuth their places rectified for the year 1689 : to
which is added Mr Sharp’s catalogue of the fouthern
liars not vifible in our hemifphere, adapted to the year
1726.
The firlt catalogue, we believe, that wras printed in
the new or fecond form, according to the order of the
right afeenfion, is that of De la Caille, given in his
Ephemerides for the ten years between 1733 and 1763,
and printed in 1733. It contains the right afeenfions
and declinations of 307 liars, adapted to the begin¬
ning of the year 1730. In 1737 De la Caille publilh¬
ed his Aftronomice Fundament a, containing a catalogue
of the right afeenfions and declinations of 398 liars,
likewife adapted to the beginning of 1730. And in
1763, the year after his death, was publilhed the Cce-
lum Aujlrale Stelliferum of the fame author 5 contain- .
ing a catalogue of the places of 1942 liars, all fituated
to the louthward of the tropic of Capricorn, and ob¬
ferved by him while he was at the Cape of Good
Hope in 1751 and 1732^ their places being alfo a-
dapted to the beginning of 1750. In the fame year
■was publilhed his Ephemerides for the ten years be¬
tween 1763 and 1773 \ in the introduction to which
are given the places of 31 3 zodiacal liars, all deduced
from the obfervations of the fame author 5 the places
adapted to the beginning of the year 1763.
In the Nautical Almanack for 1773, is given a ca¬
talogue of 387 liars, in right afeenfion, declination,
longitude and latitude, derived from the obfervations
of the late celebrated Dr Bradley, and adjulted to the
beginning of the year 1760. This fmall catalogue,
and the refults of about 200 obfervations of the moon,
are all that the public have yet feen of the multiplied
labours of this mod accurate and indefatigable obfer¬
ver, although he has now (1798) been dead upwards
of 36 years.
In 1773 was publilhed a thin volume, entitled, Opera
Inedit a 0 containing feveral papers of the late Tobias
5' 1 CAT
Mayer, and among them a catalogue of the right afeen- Catalans
lions and declinations of 998 liars, which may be oc- die Surs.
culted by the moon and planets •, the places being 'r~~J
adapted to the beginning of the year 17,6.
At the end of the firil volume of “ Aftronomical
Obfervations made at the Royal Obfervatory at Green¬
wich,” publilhed in 1776, Dr Malkelync, the prefent
altronomer royal, has given a catalogue of the places
34 principal liars, in right alccnlion and north polar
diitaoce, adapted to the beginning of the year 1770.
I hefe, being the refult of feveral years repeated ob¬
fervations, made with the utmolt care, and the bell in-
llruments, it may be prefumed are exceedingly accu¬
rate.
In 1782, M. Bode of Berlin publilhed a very ex-
tenfive catalogue of 3038 of the fixed liars, collected
from the obfervations of Flamileed, Bradley, Heve¬
lius, Mayer, De la Caille, Melfier, Monnier, D’Ar-
quier, and other altronomers; all adapted to the begin¬
ning of the year 1780 ; amd accompanied with a ce-
lellial atlas or fet of maps of the conllellations, engra¬
ved in a moll delicate and beautiful manner.
lo thefe may be added Dr Herfchel’s catalogue of
double liars, printed in the Phil. Tranf. for 1782 and
1783 ; Meflier’s nebulas and chillers of liars, publilhed
in the Connoijjance des Temps for 17845 and Herfchel’s
catalogue of the fame kind given in the Phil. Tranf.
for 1786.
In 1789 Mr Francis Wollallon publilhed “ A Spe¬
cimen of a General Aftronomical Catalogue, in Zones
of North-polar Diftance, and adapted to January 1,
1790.” Thefe liars are collefled from all the cata¬
logues before-mentioned, from that of Hevelius down¬
wards. This work contains five diilindl catalogues j
viz. Dr Malkelyne’s new catalogue of 36 principal
liars 5 a general catalogue of all the liars, in zones of
north polar dillance 5 an index to the general cata¬
logue 5 a catalogue of all the liars in the order in
which they pafs the meridian 5 and a catalogue of zo¬
diacal liars, in longitude and latitude.-
Finally, in 1792, Dr Zach publilhed at Gotha, Ta-
bulce Motuum Solis ; to which is annexed a ftew cata¬
logue of the principal fixed liars, from his own obfer¬
vations made in the years 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790.
This catalogue contains the right afcenlions and decli¬
nations of 381 principal liars, adapted to the begin¬
ning of the year 1 800. Hutton^s Math. DiB.
Befides thefe two methods of forming catalogues of
the liars, Dr Herfchel has propofed a new one, in
which the comparative brightnefs of the liars is accu¬
rately expreifed. It is long fince allrcnomers were firil
led to arrange the liars in clafles of diflerent magni¬
tudes by their various degrees of brilliancy or lullre.
Brightnefs and fize have at all times been confidered
as fynonymous terms 5 fo that the brighteft liars have
been referred to the clai’s comprehending thofe of the
firil magnitude 5 ar^d as the fubfequent orders of liars
have been fuppofed to decreafe in lullre, their magni¬
tude has been determined in the fame decreafing pro-
grefiion : but the want of fome fixed and fatisfactory
llandard of lullre has been the fource of confiderabie.
confufion and uncertainty in fettling the relative mag¬
nitudes of the liars. A liar marked l;2m. is luppo-
fed to be between the firil and fecond magnitude 5 but
2.1m. intimates, that the itar is nearly of the fecond
magnitude,