A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - New Star Catalogue in 1873

 Nature, March 27^th 1873

The largest catalogue of stars that has ever been published in America is now about to appear from the United States Naval Observatory at Washington.

This work, as far as we can learn from a recent communication of Prof. Yarnall, will embody all the valuable observations made since the foundation of the observatory in 1842, with the meridian instruments, consisting of the work of the well-known astronomers Coffin, Hubbard, Ferguson, Newcomb, Hall, Harkness and Yarnall.

Over fifteen years of labour have been devoted to it by Prof Yarnall and his assistants, and he himself has made nearly one half of the observations. The catalogue will be based on over eighty thousand observations of more than ten thousand stars, many of them being quite faint, and in extreme southern latitudes, such as have never or rarely hitherto been observed.

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