360 Prof. C. Piazzi Smyth's Meteorological 



that there is decidedly a new ring, in a place where there was 

 assuredly none ever seen before, namely between the inside of the 

 inner of the old rings and the body of the planet ; the new ring, 

 too, is described as being almost y% of the breadth of that space, 

 and apparently thicker than the older ones, but very much fainter 

 in point of illumination ; the feebleness of its light, indeed, is what 

 makes it so difficult an object still for any but a very powerful 

 telescope and a practised eye, under favourable atmospherical cir- 

 cumstances. 



Yet it has been seen by telescopes much inferior to those which 

 have been employed on Saturn before, and has appeared in a place 

 which has been the subject of such frequent inspection and observa- 

 tion, that it becomes a matter passing strange that it should never 

 have been seen before. It was first detected by Professor Bond in 

 November last, but was almost simultaneously perceived in this 

 country, first by Mr Dawes, and then by Mr Lassel ; though these 

 gentlemen appear to have been several days later than the American, 

 and not so decided as to the nature of the novel appearance which 

 they witnessed : still it is an interesting trait in the history of 

 astronomical discovery, that again and again the American and 

 British observers are running each other so very close. Mr 

 Dawes remarks, that as the side of Saturn's ring which is now 

 turning up to our view has been in the shade of the sun for the last 

 fifteen years, some mist or fog may thereby have been generated 

 which may account for the appearance just now of the new faint ring ; 

 but that although this might somewhat relieve us of the difficulty 

 of this ring not having been seen by the same observers with the 

 same telescopes when the other side of the ring was turned up a few 

 years since, it does not explain satisfactorily how it came about that 

 Sir W. Herschel, who had the opportunity of watching Saturn under 

 precisely similar circumstances to the present, and used it to good 

 purpose, too, with his forty feet reflector, did not suspect the exist- 

 ence of anything of the sort. 



The question would probably be completely set at rest if the ring 

 could be observed transiting before a star, as its opaqueness or tran- 

 sparency would then become immediately evident. But this is an 

 event which we may wait many years for in this climate and with 

 small telescopes ; while if we had a large reflector on a high table- 

 land in the tropics, the number of visible stars would be so greatly 

 increased, that an opportunity of determining this interesting ques- 

 tion might soon be obtained. 



Meanwhile we may be well content with the frequently recurring 

 proofs of the excellence of the modern telescopes, reflectors and re- 

 fractors ; for the last disappearance of Saturn's ring produced the 

 discovery of an eighth satellite, and its reappearance has been at- 

 tended by another discovery, and of a most startling and unexpected 

 description, as we seem almost driven upon the necessity of some 

 formative process at work even still. 



