I-8 2 Description and Use of the

In comparing solar tropical years withJulian years, by which we still computetime, observe, that the last nine monthtzof any solar tropical year answer to the firstnine months of that Julian year with whichit is compared; and that the first threemonths of the next succeeding tropical yearanswer to the three last months of that fameJulian year with which it is compared.

The 298th day from the kalends of Ja-nuary, which was Thursday in the 706thyear of the Julian period, the sun enteredLibra at noon; at which instant it was loh.aqmin. past noon at Greenwich.

In all calculations of autumnal equinoxes,we take the same 298th day, or October25th in the radical year o, for our epoch.

And to gain the day of the month inwhich the equinox must happen since theradix,

Add the number of days, hours, andminutes in the retrocession, to the days,hours, and minutes of the equinox in thefixed meridian, and you obtain the Juliandays and hours from the radix.

Add the epoch 298 to the days of the.tropical reduction, and from their sum sub-tract