II. — Note on Venus, — Morning Star and Evening Star at 

 THE Same Time, February, 1894. — By A. Cameron, 

 Principal of the Academy, Yarmouth, N. S. 



(Read 12th March, 1894.) 



On Tuesday, February 13th, 1894, I saw Venus as an evening- 

 star in the west after sunset, and next morning I saw her in the 

 east before sunrise. I don't know whether such a pair of obser- 

 vations has been made before, and think it may be as well to put 

 them on record. 



On both occasions the planet was first found with a field-glass 

 but after being found she was seen quite distinctly with the naked 

 eye. The eye-observation was much easier in the evening than 

 in the morning, because on the former occasion Venus was in a 

 bit of clear sky, while on the latter the sky was streaked with 

 lines of thin cloud. Apart from sky conditions, however, her 

 brilliancy was less on the morning of the 14th because she was 

 nearer inferior conjunction then. Had there been no glass at 

 hand, the eye could easily have found her on the evening of the 

 13th, but I don't think it could have done so at all — certainly it 

 could not have done it easily — in the gray-and-yellow-streaked 

 sky of next morning. 



As the observations were made very near inferior conjunction, 

 the planet's phase was very small, only about one-hundredth of 

 the disc being illuminated. The field-glass used has a magnify- 

 ing power of four diameters, and in it the thin crescent was well 

 defined and looked very pretty. 



***** 



It is as a 'pair that these observations appear to me to be 

 specially worth noting. To see Venus in the evening after sun- 

 set and to see her again next morning before sunrise (the seeing- 

 being done with the naked eye or with a low-power field-glass) 

 is a kind of double observation which can not often be made and 



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