The late Solar Eclipse. 235 



trouble to observe and note the height precisely at the commence- 

 ment of each hour, from eight in the morning to voon on the tenth 

 day of every month remaining of the present year, r.iul com- 

 municate the results to your Magazine and other Philosophical 

 publications, there would soon be constructed a table of Alti- 

 tudes of every important situation, to supply that great defect in 

 all our topographical publications : considering this as a public 

 invitation, I shall commence on the lOlh of October. 



Yours truly, B. Bevan. 



Gosport Observatory, Sept. 1 . The eclipse of to-day excited 

 great interest in this neighbourhood, and was viewed, under 

 favourable circumstances of the weather, with admiration. The 

 beginning of the eclipse, or the appnUe of the moon on the sun's 

 northern limb, took place at* Oh. 16m. 379. 



Visible conjimction, or time of new moon . . 1 43 53 



Greatest obscuration of the sun's disc .... 1 46 23 



End of the eclipse, or separation of the limbs 



of the sun and moon 3 iO 6 



The portion of the sun eclipsed at the greatest obscuration 

 was digits 10| deg. nearly out of 128. This was the greatest 

 solar eclii)se that has happened in this part of Europe since the 

 year 1764 ; and indeed, of all those that will again happen here 

 before the year 1847. In certain places, as in the Shetland 

 islands, Hanover, Frankfort, Mtmich, &:c. it was annular, or 

 showed the ap))earance of a ring round the body of the moon. 

 In latitude 81.39.29. north, and longitude 32.55. west, at 

 59.3. (our time) )>. M. the sun and moon rose together; the 

 sun with a beautiful ring of light round the moon. In lati- 

 tude 27. 10. 30. north, and longitude 46. 2. 4. east, at 3h. 

 12m. 35s. (our time) i'. M. the sun set with the same ring of 

 light round the body of the moon. The total duration of this 

 eclipse to the inhabitants of the earth, was 5h. 17ni. ; but at no 

 one place in particular was the duration much more than half 

 that time. At 20m. past one P. M. Venus was seen with the 

 naked eye, shining with a white light in the W. by S point of 

 the compass, and by a sextant, 40. 55. distant from the centre 

 of the sun — viewed through an inverting achromatic telescope, 

 she represented an illuminated crescent, only equal to what is 

 shown by the moon at her entering her second quarter ; and it 

 was full an hour before she was hidden by a cloud. At ':>() mi- 

 nutes past one P. M. the planet Mars presented himself to the 

 naked eye : he shone witli a ftdl orb of a bright gold colour, was 

 30" to the cast of and above the path of the sun, and continued 

 in sight about ten minutes. At the greatest obscuration, the 

 sun only presented to our view a small red crescent, similar to 



* Moan or clock time. 



G K 2 that 



