Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 096.djvu/222

206 given, the angle of the direction of its motion with the visual ray will still remain unknown.

As hitherto we have consulted only those proper motions which have a marked tendency to a parallactic centre, we ought now, when the question is to determine the velocity of the solar motion, to have in view the real motion of every star whose apparent motion we know; for as it would not be proper to assign a motion to the sun, either much greater or much less than any real motion which may be found to exist in some star or other, it follows that a general review of proper motions ought to be made before we can impartially fix on the solar velocity; but as trials with a number of stars would be attended with considerable inconvenience, I shall use only our former six in laying down the method that will be followed with all the rest.

We are now come to a point no less difficult than essential to be determined. Neither the parallactic nor real motion of a star can be ascertained till its relative distance is fixed upon. In attempting to do this it will not be satisfactory to divide the stars into a few magnitudes, and suppose these to represent the relative distances we require. There are not perhaps among all the stars of the heavens any two that are exactly at the same distance from us; much less can we admit that the stars which we call of the first magnitude are equally distant from the sun. And indeed, if the brightness of the stars is admitted as a criterion by which we are to arrange them, it is perfectly evident that all those of the first magnitude must differ as much in distance as they certainly do in