Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 095.djvu/277

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Motion of the Sun, and solar System.
249

quantities. The six prineipal stars, whose intersecting arches have been given, when their proper motions in right ascension and polar distance are brought into one direction, will have the apparent motions contained in the following Table.

Table II.

Names of the
Stars.

Direction of the apparent
Motions.

Quantities of the apparent
Motions.

Sirius 68° 49' 40",7 south-preceding 1",11528 per year
Arcturus 55 29 42,0 south-preceding 2,08718 ————
Capella 71 35 22,4 south-following 0,46374 ————
Lyra 56 20 57,3 north-following 0,32435 ————
Aldebaran 76 29 37,3 south-following 0,12341 ————
Procyon 50 2 24,5 south-preceeding 1,23941 ————
————
Sum of the apparent motions 5",35337

We must now recur to what has been said, when the construction of the triangle expressing the three motions of a star, that is not at rest, was explained; and, as we are to find out a solar motion which will require the least real motion in our six stars, an attention to this triangle will be of considerable use; for when the line p a, Fig. 1, which represents the real motion, is brought into the situation m a, where it is perpendicular to s p, the real motion which is required will then be a minimum. It also follows, from the construction of the same triangle, that if by the choice of an apex for the solar motion we can lessen the angle made at s by the lines s p and s a, we shall lessen the quantity of real motion required to bring the star from the parallactic line s p m to the observed position a.

It has already been shown, in the case of Sirius and Arcturus,

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