SOS Royal Astronomical Society. 



excessively narrow line of nearly the same colour as the planet. The 

 Nautical Almanac gives Sept. 3 as the time of its reappearance. No 

 shadow on the ball. 



" ' Sept. 3. Power 188 [an equiconvex single lens]. The ring 

 is bright, though rather duller in colour than the planet. There is 

 a dusky line about the same degree of shade as the belts (which are 

 strong to-night), crossing the ball precisely in the line of the ring. 

 It is very different from the shadow of the ring. Is it the ring itself, 

 which, being less bright than the planet, is visible on the ball ; as 

 Jupiter's third and fourth satellites are visible on his disc as they 

 transit over it ? Night fine. Enceladus very well seen, and watched 

 nearly up to the preceding arm. 



" ' Sept. 4. Ring much brighter than last night. The dusky 

 shade across the ball is visible, but not so distinct as it was last 

 night. The following arm appears decidedly longer than the pre- 

 ceding one.' 



" A few days after the last observation, I went to Starfield on a 

 visit to Mr. Lassell, and on every opportunity that offered observed 

 Saturn with his powerful 20-foot reflector. The following are some 

 of the memoranda entered in my journal. 



" ' Sept. 12. 11^ 20"" M.T. The ring is the finest line imagi- 

 nable, yet of a pretty clear bright planetary colour. 

 " ' Sept. 13. No ring visible, nor shadow. 



"' Sept. 14. No ring visible. There is a very narrow dusky line 

 [on the ball] just south of the bright equatoreal region. 



" ' Sept. 19. The ring is Just visible when the planet is best 

 seen.' [It was frequently noticed to-night during the series of ob- 

 servations which placed beyond doubt the satellite nature of Hy- 

 perion.] 



" The subsequent observations were made after my return to 

 Camden Lodge, Cranbrook, with my 8~foot achromatic. 



" ' Oct. 6. No decided appearance of the ring on either side, 

 gh 45m^ Tethys has occulted Enceladus. The planet is exquisitely 

 seen. The line across the ball is very sharply defined and black, 

 though I thought not quite uniformly so ; the northern edge appear- 

 ing blacker than the southern. [The obscure surface is now turned 

 towards the earth.] 



" ' Oct. 1 1 . The arras of the ring qxq frequently visible, especially 

 that on the following side, which is far more steadily seen than the 

 other. 



" ' Oct. 26. Exquisite vision. Glimpses of a division in the dark 

 shade on the ball. 



" ' Oct. 30. I have several times this evening received the im- 

 pression of the dark line across the ball being divided by an ex- 

 cessively fine line of light, perhaps a trifle north of its middle. Most 

 frequently suspected with powers 323 and 460. 



"'11^ 30*°. Enceladus is at the end of the following arm very 

 nearly. There is a pretty bright dot on the following arm, and a 

 similar one on the preceding arm*. 



* The night of Oct. 30 was very fine. Enceladus was bright with power 



