An Account of the Same Comet; By Nicolas Munckley, of Lincoln's-Inn, Esq

gining it was material, I had not been careful to mark to single minutes. At $1^h\ 22'$, its distance from Rigel was $7^\circ\ 6'$; at $1^h\ 24'$, from Betelgeuse $15^\circ\ 53'$; and at $1^h\ 36'$, its distance from Sirius was $17^\circ\ 36'$. This will be sufficient for you to find its place by. The observations, together with above twenty others, were made with a little Hadley's quadrant, and may most of them, I believe, be depended on to about two or three minutes; but some perhaps may err four or five minutes. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, Cambridge, Jan. 9, 1760. John Michell. XLIII. An Account of the same Comet; by Nicolas Munckley, of Lincoln's-Inn, Esq; Read Jan. 17, January 9, 1760, I observed what ap- peared to me to be evidently a comet, west of the constellation of Orion, or (to speak more astronomically and exactly) over the two stars marked $\mu$ and $\nu$ in the river Eridanus, but nearer the latter than the former; right ascension, about 66 deg. de- clination, about 3 deg. S. It was something dimmer and larger than either of these stars; and through a telescope, appeared magnified, and surrounded with a broad, faint, ill-defined haziness, like the last comet, such as plainly distinguished it from any thing else in the heavens. It seemed, even between the times I observed it that evening, to have a sen- sible motion towards the north-west (i.e. nearer the zenith, and contrary to the order of the signs): for though at first I apprehend its place to be as above, on reviewing it, two or three hours afterwards, it was more over the star \( \nu \), and a little to the west- ward of it. This phenomenon was seen the night before (viz. the 8th, when I was in London), by two or three persons, who mentioned it to me: but though they particularly took notice of it as different from other stars, they were not astronomers enough to give any exact account, either of its place or appearance. The evenings following the 9th were cloudy, till the 13th, which, though far from being very clear; allowed me however, at times, to see the constella- tion Orion, and westward of it, as far as Cetus, &c. I saw particularly the stars \( \mu \) and \( \nu \), mentioned be- fore, and the places above-referred to over them; but I saw nothing any more of the comet. Hampstead. Nicolas Munckley.