154 New Comet. — Fasten ff on the Solar Spots and Clouds. 



Brisbane, the merit of re-discovering the remarkable comet of 

 Encke has been ascribed to Mr. Dunlop. On the authority of 

 that paper, and of a private letter from Sir Thomas Brisbane, 

 we afterwards contradicted a statement of Baron Von Zach, 

 who attributed the discovery to Mr. Rumker. We have re- 

 ceived, however, recent letters both from Sir Thomas and Mr. 

 Dunlop, in which all the merit of the discovery is attributed 

 to Mr. Rumker. Two comets had made their appearance at 

 the same period in New South Wales, one of which was disco- 

 vered by Mr. Dunlop, and the other by Mr. Rumker. It was, 

 therefore, a natural mistake to attribute the discovery of the 

 comet of Encke to Mr. Dunlop, and that of the other to Mr. 

 Rumker, when it was exactly the reverse ; the other comet 

 of September 1822 having been discovered by Mr. Dunlop. 

 We regret to learn that the health of that able and active 

 astronomer Mr. Rumker has been so much impaired as to 

 deprive the observatory of Paramatta of his valuable services. 

 — Edin. Journ. of Science. 



NEW COMET. 



M. Biela discovered, on the 1 9th of July, a new comet in 

 the constellation Taunis. It was seen about three weeks af- 

 terwards by Dr. Olbers. The apparent place of the comet 



PASTORFF ON THE SOLAR SPOTS AND CLOUDS. 



In examining the sun's disk with a fine six-feet achromatic 

 telescope of Fraunhofer, with powers varying from 25 to 400, 

 M. Pastorff of Buchholtz, near Frankfort on the Oder, has 

 observed several interesting phaenomena relative to the spots 

 on its surface, their penumbrse, and the phosphoric clouds. He 

 observes, that the penumbrse of the spots resemble a mass of the 

 empty eggs of the Bombix neustfia, which surround the black 

 spots concentrically and with different breadths. These appa- 

 rent eggs are contiguous and, as it were, agglomerated tlie one 

 to the other, with openings extremely small. M. Pastorff con- 

 siders it quite certain that these spots with the penumbrae are 

 on the surface of the solar globe, and that they disappear 

 when the phosphoric clouds cover them, principally when 



thev 



