3rd. And
again on June 4th; this was the last meeting: Sheepshanks had
previously given me private information of the certainty of its
dissolution.--On Apr. 4th I visited Mr Herschel at Slough, where one
evening I saw Saturn with his 20-foot telescope, the best view of it
that I have ever had.--In June I attended the Greenwich Observatory
Visitation.--Before my election (as Plumian Professor) there are
various schemes on my quires for computation of transit corrections,
&c. After Apr. 15th there are corrections for deficient wires,
inequality of pivots, &c. And I began a book of proposed regulations
for observations. In this are plans for groups of stars for R.A. (the
Transit Instrument being the only one finished): order of preference
of classes of observations: no reductions to be made after dinner, or
on Sunday: no loose papers: observations to be stopped if reductions
are two months in arrear: stars selected for parallax.--The reduction
of transits begins on Apr. 15th. On May 15th Mr Pond sent me some
moon-transits to aid in determining my longitude.--Dr Young, in a
letter to me of May 7th, enquires whether I will accept a free
admission to the Royal Society, which I declined. On May 9th I was
elected to the Astronomical Society.
Pages:
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143