The star passed the meridian at noon in
December, and its position was particularly noticed by Molyneux on
the third of that month. Any perceptible displacement by
parallax--for so the apparent change in position, due to the earth's
motion, is called--would would have made the star shift towards the
north. Bradley, however, when observing it on the 17th, was
surprised to find that the apparent place of the star, so far from
shifting towards the north, as they had perhaps hoped it would, was
found to lie a little more to the south than when it was observed
before. He took extreme care to be sure that there was no mistake in
his observation, and, true astronomer as he was, he scrutinized with
the utmost minuteness all the circumstances of the adjustment of his
instruments. Still the star went to the south, and it continued so
advancing in the same direction until the following March, by which
time it had moved no less than twenty seconds south from the place
which it occupied when the first observation was made. After a brief
pause, in which no apparent movement was perceptible, the star by the
middle of April appeared to be returning to the north. Early in June
it reached the same distance from the zenith which it had in
December.
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