ASTRONOMY". 25 



Professor Holden, in connection with Dr. Draper at Has- 

 tings-on-the-Hndson, observed the third and fourth contacts, 

 and secured nineteen good photographs. 



Assistant H. M.Paul observed the transit at Hanover, N.H. 



Professor James C.Watson and Professor E. C. Pickering 

 photographed the transit of Mercury with instruments fur- 

 nished them by the Naval Observatory. Professor Watson 

 exposed seventy-two plates, but, owing to bad weather, Pro- 

 fessor Pickering exposed successfully only twenty-six. The 

 plates were returned to the Naval Observatory and there 

 developed. 



The London Academy, May 18, states that cloudy weath- 

 er prevailed over England during the transit of Mercury on 

 May 6, but that Scotch observers were more successful. 



From the Observatory the following is extracted: "In ad- 

 dition to the observations given in the report of the meeting 

 of the R. A. S., reports have been received from a number of 

 observers abroad. M. Janssen, at Meudon, was able to see 

 Mercury outside the sun's disk before external contact; and 

 by means of the spectroscope he succeeded in establishing the 

 existence of an atmosphere round the planet, and its constitu- 

 tion. He also obtained some photographs, of which two are 

 excellent. Captain Mouchez and MM. Henry at the Paris 

 Observatory observed internal contact, though the observa- 

 tion was bad, owing to cloud, as was also the case at Algiers 

 and Bordeaux. 



"At Toulouse M. Perrotin observed internal contact through 

 cloud so dense that a dark glass was not used. Under these 

 circumstances, he remarked a dark aureole or penumbra round 

 the planet, but this disappeared when the light became too 

 bright. 



"The French expedition to Ogden, Utah, was perfectly suc- 

 cessful, seventy-eight photographs of the transit having been 

 taken by MM. Andre and Angot, as well as observations of 

 contact. Satisfactory observations and photographs were also 

 taken at the observatory of West Point, N. Y. 



"The transit was also observed in Spain, at San Fernando 

 and Cadiz. At the latter place M. Arcimis records that no arc 

 of light was seen before internal contact, either outside the sun 

 or round the part of the planet's limb on the sun. At inter- 

 nal contact the planet assumed a balloon or pear shape, and 



B 



