392 NOTES ON VENUS — CAMERON. 



which I am inclined to think has not often been made. If any 

 reader of this note knows of another instance of the same kind 

 he will confer a great favor by sending me a report of it. 



But even singly tliey are not altogether without interest, and 

 especially when considered in connection with the papers on eye 

 and opera-glass observations of Venus published in the Transac- 

 tions of this Institute for 1891-2 and 1892-3. 



The time of inferior conjunction this year was February 16th, 

 5 a. m. (60*^ W. time). The time of the evening observation on 

 February 13th was 6 p. m. Here then we have an eye-observa- 

 tion of Venus after sunset within two and a half days of inferior 

 conjunction. There is no observation of this kind in either of 

 the papers mentioned which is as good as this one. In point of 

 time it is closer than any previous observation I know of near 

 conjunction, but in point of distance it is not as .close as one or 

 two of the best daylight ones recorded in the 1892-3 paper. As 

 a field-glass-observation, of course it can't compare at all with 

 the one made at the very time of conjunction on the afternoon of 

 July 9th, 1892. 



The morning observation with the eye supersedes the evening 

 one as the nearest in point of time to conjunction, the interval 

 being less than two days. That is really the chief feature of 

 this observation, but apparently there is another which, if not 

 more important, is much more curious. It is at inferior conjunc- 

 tion that Venus ceases to be " evening star " and begins to be 

 " morning star," according to the technical language of the 

 almanacs. So, this year, Venus did not begin her career as 

 *' moi'ning star" until 5 a. m. on February 16th. But she was 

 seen above the eastern horizon before sunrise on the morning of 

 February 14th. That is, she was seen as a genuine morning star 

 — the morninff star, indeed, for she was the last of all the stars 

 that morning to faint and die out in the light of the rising sun 

 — two days before she began to be a technical " morning star." 

 « * * * * 



It seems hardly worth while to tell how such an apparently 

 curious observation came to be made, but this note may fall under 

 the eyes of some who would like most of all to know that very 



