A little ramble through 19th century astronomy - Uranus in 1874

 Academy Newspaper Saturday 17^th January 1874 

Mr. Marth, in a letter to Mr. Lassell published in the Astronomical Society’s Notices, has pointed out the favourable chances that observers may have during the present apparition of Uranus of contributing something towards the decisive settlement of the question respecting the existence of Sir William Herschel's additional satellites of the Georgium Sidus. The geocentric place of Uranus in the heavens is now only some twenty seconds south of that in which it appeared in 1790 at a three-days’ later date, so that the planet in its retrograde course passed on Thursday night (Jan. 15), and will pass on the night of February 6 the same stars which it passed on the evenings of January 18 and February 9, in 1790. Some of these stars were then supposed to be additional satellites. It seems certainly desirable that the opportunity for recovering these little stars, and also for ascertaining the effect of the neighbourhood of the planet upon their visibility, should not be allowed to slip away unused. It will be remembered that Sir W. Herschel announced the discovery of six satellites to Uranus, two only of which, viz., the second and fourth, have been confirmed by subsequent observations. Two inner satellites revolving within the first of Sir W, Herschel’s have been observed by Mr. Lassell (who named them Ariel and Umbriel) at Malta, to which place he transferred his large reflector on account of the great clearness of the atmosphere there, and by others. The existence of four of Sir W. Herschel’s satellites is therefore very uncertain, and it is to these that Mr. Marth refers.

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