is, in the proportion of 29d.12h.44′ to 27d.7h.43′. Whence it comes to pass that all the angles about the centre T are dilated in the same proportion; and the greatest variation, which otherwise would be but 32′ 32″, now augmented in the said proportion, becomes 35′ 10″.
And this is its magnitude in the mean distance of the sun from the earth, neglecting the differences which may arise from the curvature of the orbis magnus, and the stronger action of the sun upon the moon when horned and new, than when gibbous and full. In other distances of the sun from the earth, the greatest variation is in a proportion compounded of the duplicate proportion of the time of the synodic revolution of the moon (the time of the year being given) directly, and the triplicate proportion of the distance of the sun from the earth inversely. And, therefore, in the apogee of the sun, the greatest variation is 33′ 14″, and in its perigee 37′ 11″, if the eccentricity of the sun is to the transverse semi-diameter of the orbis magnus as 1615⁄16 to 1000.
Hitherto we have investigated the variation in an orb not eccentric, in which, to wit, the moon in its octants is always in its mean distance from the earth. If the moon, on account of its eccentricity, is more or less removed from the earth than if placed in this orb, the variation may be something greater, or something less, than according to this rule. But I leave the excess or defect to the determination of astronomers from the phænomena.
PROPOSITION XXX. PROBLEM XI.
To find the horary motion of the nodes of the moon, in a circular orbit.
Let S represent the sun, T the earth, P the moon, NPn the orbit of the moon, Npn the orthographic projection of the orbit upon the plane of the ecliptic; N, n the nodes, nTNm the line of the nodes produced indefinitely;
