ASTRONOMY. 



397 



From this it will appear that over a thousand plates are regarded as 

 suitable for measurement. 



The Transit of Venus o/1882. — The Comptes Eendus of the Paris Acad- 

 emy of Sciences for August, 1883, is almost wholly occupied by the 

 preliminary reports from the various expeditions sent by the French 

 commission for the observation of this phenomenon, and one or two 

 expeditions acting in co-operation with the commission. The observa- 

 tions of contacts, etc., appear in these reports. The stations included 

 are Petionville, Hayti; Puebla, Mexico; Fort Tartenon, Martinique; 

 Saint Augustine, Fla. ; Santa Cruz, Patagonia ; Cerro Negro, near San 

 Bernardo, Chili; Chubut, Patagonia; Rio Negro (4 h 21 m 20 s W. of 

 Paris and 40° 47' 51" S.); Hoste Island, Orange Bay, Terra del Fuego; 

 and Bragado, Buenos Ayres. It is gratifying to note the general suc- 

 cess which attended these expeditions, even at the most southern sta- 

 tion in Orange Bay, the latitude of which was 55° 31' 28". 



VULCAN. (?) 



The editor of the Astronomische Nachrichten (Professor Kriiger) re- 

 marks in No. 2547, with regard to the red star seen momentarily by M. 

 Trouvelot near the sun during the total eclipse on the 6th of May, that, 

 according to a communication he has had for some time in his hands 

 from Professor Holden, there can be no doubt that the star in question 

 was in fact a Aiietis. No intra-mercurial planet, therefore, was seen 

 during the eclipse. — (Athenaum.) 



