3. Commission des Notations, des Unités et de L’Économie des Publications

Abstract

At the meeting held at Leiden on July 13, 1928, the Union approved the recommendation of Commission 3 to adopt new boundaries for the constellations north of 12°·5 south declination, these boundaries being, in each case, hour circles or parallels of declination. The Union also approved of a grant to cover the cost of publishing an atlas showing these new boundaries. The boundaries were defined by Mr Delporte of the Uccle Observatory from whom this proposal originally came. Mr Delporte’s boundaries were carefully examined at Yale Observatory in order to make sure that no variable stars would have their designations changed, and that a minimum of stars having Baeyer or Flamsteed designations would be moved to other constellations. After making a few minor alterations on these accounts, Mr Delporte sent his manuscript to the General Secretary, under whose supervision the Cambridge University Press published, in 1930, a volume entitled, Délimitation Scientifique des Constellations. At the suggestion of the present writer this volume extends not merely to 12°·5 south declination, but from pole to pole. Gould had, for the most part, defined the southern constellations by hour circles and parallels; in the few cases where this had not been done, Mr Delporte revised the boundaries accordingly.