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The National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Proposed Changes in the American Ephemeris, 1877
[The following narrative is taken from Frederick W. True’s Semi-centennial history of the National Academy of Sciences, A History of the First Half-Century of the National Academy of Sciences 1863-1913, pp. 267-268.]
This committee was appointed at the request of the Secretary of the Navy who, in December, 1877, expressed the desire that the Academy would advise him as to changes in the Nautical Almanac which would render that publication more useful to navigators and others. The members of the committee were J. E. Hilgard, J. H. C. Coffin, Asaph Hall, Charles A. Schott, Charles A. Young, James C. Watson and C. H. F. Peters. It reported at the end of the year 1877 or early in 1878, but the report appears not to have been published. From the report of Prof. Simon Newcomb as Superintendent of the Nautical Almanac for the fiscal year 1877-1878, however, we learn the nature of the changes proposed by the Academy. Under date of October 26, 1878, he writes [Rep. Secr. Navy for 1878, pp. 162-164]:
“…In December, 1877, on recommendation of the office, the honorable Secretary of the Navy referred to the National Academy of Sciences the question, what changes were required in the Ephemeris to make it more serviceable to those who use it. A committee of the Academy recommended several extensive changes, involving the omission of matter of which some was not regarded as necessary, and some could be readily derived from data in other parts of the work. The space thus left was filled by the addition of matter considered useful. The chiefs of several government surveys desired a large increase in the list of fixed stars contained in the Ephemeris, in order to facilitate the determination of geographical positions. The changes next in importance consisted in the presentation of more complete data, maps, and diagrams for the eclipses of the sun and of the satellites of the planets. The changes were so adjusted that the size and cost of the work should not be materially altered. They commence with the Ephemeris of 1882, now in press.”
In the preface to the Nautical Almanac for the year 1882 we find the change adopted mentioned in the following specific terms [American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac for 1882, 1st ed., 1879. Preface, p. iii]:
“The contents of the present volume of the American Ephemeris, though substantially unchanged in their general character, have, in some parts, undergone material alterations in their form and arrangement.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“Part I, Ephemeris for the Meridian of Greenwich….The principal change made in it has been the transfer of the sun’s co-ordinates and of the geocentric ephemeredes of Mercury, Uranus, and Neptune from Part II, and the addition of accurate heliocentric positions of all the planets.
“Part II, Ephemeris for the Meridian of Washington….The list of mean places of fixed stars has been greatly enlarged, for the convenience of field-astronomers.
“Part III, Phenomena….The additions comprise more complete data for eclipses of the sun, diagrams showing the configurations of the satellites of Jupiter, data respecting the disks of Mercury and Venus for the reduction of meridian and photometric observations, and diagrams, with tables, for identifying any known satellites of other planets.
“Simon Newcomb,
“Professor U. S. Navy, Superintendent.
“Washington,
“September 3, 1879.” 
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