Editing Urbain Le Verrier (section)

==== Tables of the planets ====
Early in the 19th century, the methods of predicting the motions of the planets were somewhat scattered, having been developed over decades by many different researchers. In 1847, Le Verrier took on the task to "... embrace in a single work the entire planetary system, put everything in harmony if possible, otherwise, declare with certainty that there are as yet unknown causes of perturbations...",<ref>
{{cite journal
|title=Trois siècles de mécanique céleste à l'Observatoire de Paris
|date=1968
|first=J.
|last=Lévy
|language=fr
|journal=L'Astronomie |volume=82
|page=381|bibcode=1968LAstr..82..381L
}}</ref> 
a work which would occupy him for the rest of his life.

Le Verrier began by re-evaluating, to the 7th order, the technique of calculating the [[Perturbation (astronomy)|planetary perturbations]] known as the perturbing function. This derivation, which resulted in 469 mathematical terms, was complete by 1849. He next collected observations of the positions of the planets as far back as 1750. Examining these and correcting for inconsistencies with the most recent data occupied him until 1852.<ref name="Tisserand"/>

Le Verrier published, in the ''Annales de l'Observatoire de Paris'', tables of the motions of all of the known planets, releasing them as he completed them, starting in 1858.<ref>see, for instance, 
{{cite journal
|url=http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/iarticle_query?journal=AnPar&volume=0004&type=SCREEN_THMB
|title=Théorie et Tables du Mouvement Apparent du Soleil 
|journal=Annales de l'Observatoire Impérial de Paris |volume=4
|language=fr 
|author=LeVerrier 
|date=1858}}</ref> 
The tables formed the [[fundamental ephemeris]] of the ''[[Connaissance des Temps]]'', the astronomical almanac of the ''[[Bureau des Longitudes]]'', until about 1912.<ref>
{{Cite journal 
|bibcode=1910Obs....33..404D
|title=Leverrier's tables of Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune
|journal=The Observatory
|volume=33
|page=404 
|first=A.M.W.
|last=Downing
|date=1910}}</ref> 
About that time, Le Verrier's work on the outer planets was revised and expanded by [[Jean Baptiste Aimable Gaillot|Gaillot]].<ref>see, for instance, 
{{cite journal
|url=http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/iarticle_query?journal=AnPar&volume=0031&type=SCREEN_THMB |title=Tables Rectifiées du Mouvement de Jupiter 
|journal=Annales de l'Observatoire de Paris, Mémoires |volume=31
|language=fr 
|author=Gaillot 
|date=1913}}</ref>