I considered it so important that I actually proposed
to omit in my publication the original observations, but was dissuaded
by Herschel and others. I sometimes suspended, observations for a
short time, in order to obtain leisure for; the reductions. I had at
first no intention of correcting the places of the fundamental stars
as settled at Greenwich. But I found myself compelled to do so,
because they were not sufficiently accurate; and then I took the
course of observing and reducing as an independent observer, without
reference to any other observatory. I introduced the principle of not
correcting instrumental errors, but measuring them and applying
numerical corrections. I determined my longitude by chronometers, and
my latitude by a repeating circle borrowed from Mr Sheepshanks, which
I used so well that the result; was only half a second in error. The
form of my reductions in the published volume for 1828 is rather
irregular, but the matter is good: it soon attracted attention. In
1829 the process was much the same: I had an assistant, Mr Baldrey.
In 1830 still the same, with the additions:--that I formally gave the
corrections of relative right-ascension of fundamental stars (without
alteration of equinox, which I had not the means of obtaining) to be
used in the year 1831; and that I reduced completely the observed
occultations (with a small error, subsequently corrected).
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