The zones of stars contained in the following pages were observed with the Meridian Circle in the years 1847, 1848, 1849, and form a continuation of those reduced and published by Mr. James Ferguson, assistant astronomer, in the year 1860. The zones reduced by Mr. Ferguson are those which were observed with this instrument in the year 1846. In his introduction Mr. Ferguson has given a description of the Meridian Circle, and a detailed account of the methods of making and reducing the observations. The description of the instrument will be found also in the annual volume for 1846, page XXXVII. The object-glass of the telescope was 4.5 inches in aperture, and 58.2 inches in focal length. The diaphragm contained eleven transit wires, and sever micrometer-wires for declination. The transit wires were designated 1, 2, I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, 10, 11; and the micrometer wires 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. The first of the transit-wires was that first passed by a star, circle east ; and the first of the micrometer-wires was that uppermost in the field, circle east, and the observer looking southward.

Jesuits established a large number of astronomical, geophysical and meteorological observatories during the 17th and 18th centuries and again during the 19th and 20th centuries throughout the world. The history of these observatories has never been published in a complete form. Many early European astronomical observatories were established in Jesuit colleges. During the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuits were the first western scientists to enter into contact with China and India. It was through them that western astronomy was first introduced in these countries. They made early astronomical observations in India and China and they directed for 150 years the Imperial Observatory of Beijing. In the 19th and 20th centuries a new set of observatories were established. Besides astronomy these now included meteorology and geophysics. Jesuits established some of the earliest observatories in Africa, South America and the Far East. Jesuit observatories constitute an often forgotten chapter of the history of these sciences.