CATACOUSTICS

, or Cataphonics, is the science of reflected sounds; or that part of acoustics which treats of the properties of echoes.

CATADIOPTRICAL Telescope, the same as Reflecting telescope; which see.

CATALOGUE of the Stars, is a list of the fixed stars, disposed according to some order; in their several constellations; with the longitudes, latitudes, right-ascensions, &c, of each.

Catalogues of the stars have usually been disposed, either as collected into certain figures called constellations, or according to their right ascensions, that is the order of their passing over the meridian. All the catalogues, from the most ancient down to Flamsteed's inclusively, were of the first of these forms, or in constellations: but most of the others since that have been of the latter form, as being much more convenient for most purposes. Indeed one has lately been disposed in classes according to zones or degrees of polar distance.

Hipparchus of Rhodes first undertook to make a catalogue of the stars, about 128 years before Christ; in which he made use of the observations of Timocharis and Aristyllus, for about 140 years before him. Ptolomy retained Hipparchus's catalogue, containing 1026 fixed stars in 48 constellations, though he himself made abundance of observations, with a view to a new catalogue, an. dom. 140. Albategni, a Syrian, brought the same down to his own time, viz, about the year of Christ 880. Anno 1437, Ulugh Beigh, or Beg, king of Parthia and India, made a new catalogue of 1022 fixed stars, or according to some 1016; since translated out of Persian into Latin by Dr. Hyde, in 1665. The third person who made a catalogue of stars from his own observations was Tycho Brahe, who determined the places of 777 stars for the end of the year 1600; which Kepler, from other observations of Tycho, afterwards increased to the number of 1000 in the Rudolphine tables; adding those of Ptolomy and other authors, omitted by Tycho; so that his catalogue amounts to above 1160. About the same time, William, landgrave of Hesse, with his mathematicians Byrgius and Rothman, determined the places of 400 stars from new observations, rectifying them for the year 1593; which Hevelius prefers to those of Tycho. Ricciolus, in his Astronomia Reformata, determined the places of 101 stars for the year 1700, from his own observations: for the rest he followed Tycho's catalogue; altering it where he thought fit. Anno 1667 Dr. Halley, in the island of St. Helena, observed 350 of the southern stars, not visible in our horizon. The same labour was repeated by Father Noel in 1710, who published a new catalogue of the same stars constructed for the year 1687. Also De la Caille, at the Cape of Good Hope, made accurate observations of about 10 thousand stars near the south pole, in the years 1751 and 1752; the catalogue of which was published in the Memoirs of the French Academy of Sciehces for the year 1752, and in some of his own works, as more particularly noticed below.

Bayer, in his Uranometria, published in 1603 a catalogue of 1160 stars, compiled chiefly from Ptolomy and Tycho, in which every star is marked with some letter of the Greek alphabet; the brightest or princi- pal star in any constellation being denoted by the first letter of the alphabet, the next star in order by the 2d letter, and so on; and when the number of stars exceeds the Greek alphabet, the remaining stars are marked by the letters of the Roman alphabet; which letters are preserved by Flamsteed in his catalogue, and by Senex on his globes, and indeed by most astronomers since that time.

In 1673, the celebrated John Hevelius, of Dantzick, published, in his Machina Cœlestis, a catalogue of 1888 stars, of which 1553 were observed by himself; and their places set down for the end of the year 1660. But this catalogue, as it stands in Flamsteed's Historia Cœlestis of 1725, contains only 1520 stars.

The most complete catalogue ever given from the labours of one man, was the Britannic catalogue, compiled from the observations of the accurate and indefatigable Mr. Flamsteed, the first Royal Astronomer at Greenwich; who for a long series of years devoted himself wholly to that business. As there was nothing wanting either in the observer or apparatus, his may be considered as a perfect work, so far as it goes. It is however to be regretted that the edition had not passed through his own hands: that now extant was published by authority, but without the author's consent, and contains 2734 stars. Another edition was published in 1725, pursuant to his testament, containing 3000 stars, with their places adapted to the beginning of the year 1689; to which is added Mr. Sharp's catalogue of the southern stars not visible in our hemisphere, set down for the year 1726. See vol. 3 of his Historia Cœlestis, in which are printed the catalogues of Ptolomy, Ulugh Beigh, Tycho, the Prince of Hessc, and Hevelius; with an account of each of them in the Prolegomena.

The first catalogue we believe that was printed in the new or second form, according to the order of the right ascensions, is that of De la Caille, given in his Ephemerides for the 10 years between 1755 and 1765, and printed in 1755. It contains the right ascensions and declinations of 307 stars, adapted to the beginning of the year 1750.—In 1757, De la Caille published his Astronomiæ Fundamenta, containing a catalogue of the right ascensions and declinations of 398 stars, likewise adapted to the beginning of 1750.—And in 1763, the year after his death, was published the Cœlum Australe Stelliferum of the same author; containing a catalogue of the places of 1942 stars, all situated to the southward of the tropic of Capricorn, and observed by him while he was at the Cape of Good Hope, in 1751 and 1752; their places being also adapted to the beginning of 1750.—In the same year was published his Ephemerides for the 10 years between 1765 and 1775; in the introduction to which are given the places of 515 zodiacal stars, all deduced from the observations of the same author; the places adapted to the beginning of the year 1765.

In the Nautical Almanac for 1773, is given a catalogue of 387 stars, in right ascension, declination, longitude, and latitude, derived from the observations of the late celebrated Dr. Bradley, and adjusted to the beginning of the year 1760. This small catalogue, and the results of about 1200 observations of the moon, are all that the public have yet seen of the multiplied labours | of this most accurate and indefatigable observer, although he has now (1794) been dead upwards of 32 years.

In 1775 was published a thin volume entitled Opera Inedita, containing several papers of the late Tobias Mayer, and among them a catalogue of the right ascensions and declinations of 998 stars, which may be occulted by the moon and planets; the places being adapted to the beginning of the year 1756.

At the end of the first volume of ‘Astronomical Observations made at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich,’ published in 1776, Dr. Maskelyne, the present Astronomer Royal, has given a catalogue of the places of 34 principal stars, in right-ascension and north-polar distance, adapted to the beginning of the year 1770. These, being the result of several years' repeated observations, made with the utmost care, and the best instruments, it may be presumed are exceedingly accurate.

In 1782, M. Bode, of Berlin, published a very extensive catalogue of 5058 of the fixed stars, collected from the observations of Flamsteed, Bradley, Hevelius, Mayer, De la Caille, Messier, Monnier, D'Arquier, and other astronomers; all adapted to the beginning of the year 1780; and accompanied with a Celestial Atlas, or set of maps of the constellations, engraved in a most delicate and beautiful manner.

To these may be added, Dr. Herschel's catalogue of double stars, printed in the Philos. Trans. for 1782 and 1783; Messier's nebulæ and clusters of stars, published in the Connoissance des Temps for 1784; and Herschel's catalogue of the same kind, given in the Philos. Trans. for 1786.

In 1789 Mr. Francis Wollaston published ‘A Specimen of a General Astronomical Catalogue, in Zones of North-polar Distance, and adapted to Jan. 1, 1790.’ These stars are collected from all the catalogues beforementioned, from that of Hevelius downwards. This work contains five distinct catalogues; viz, Dr. Maskelyne's new catalogue of 36 principal stars; a general catalogue of all the stars, in zones of north-polar distance; an index to the general catalogue; a catalogue of all the stars, in the order in which they pass the meridian; and a catalogue of zodiacal stars, in longitude and latitude.

Finally, in 1792, Dr. Zach published at Gotha, Tabulæ Motuum Solis, to which is annexed a new catalogue of the principal fixed stars, from his own observations made in the years 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790. This catalogue contains the right ascensions and declinations of 381 principal stars, adapted to the beginning of the year 1800.