“Opposition of Mars to the Sun.—Luminous Arch. 387 
sonby, Hon. R. Stopford; Hon. and Rev. Dr. Wellesley; 
Sir H. Bunbury, Sir C. H. Coote, Sir S. Graham, Sir R. 
Heron, Sir B. Hobhouse, Sir W. Jardine, Sir J. Shelley, Sir 
G. T. Staunton, Sir J. Croft, Sir F. Baker, Sir Thomas Law- 
rence, Sir W. F. Middleton, Sir W. Rawson, Sir P. C. Sil- 
vester; Admiral Sir C. Pole, Sir J. E. Smith, Sir H. Halford ; 
John Wilson Croker, Esq. M.P.; Alexander Baring, Esq. 
M.P.; Richard Heber, Esq. ; the Rev. Dr. Goodall; the Rev. 
William Kirby ; Francis Chantrey, Esq. ;Alexander MacLeay, — 
Esq.; William Sharpe MacLeay, Esgq. ; the Dean of Carlisle, 
&e. &c. &c. : 
LVII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 
OPPOSITION OF MARS TO THE SUN, OBSERVED BY DR. BURNEY, 
AT GOSPORT. 
At one o’clock A.M. May 5th, the distance of ¢ froma & 
was 1° 34! 45", and from 8 = 8°35!. From these data the 
right ascension of Mars was 14° 47™ 25°, from which if we sub- 
tract the sun’s right ascension, viz. 2° 46™ 1, the remainder 
is 125 1™ 245, the difference of their right ascensions, corre- 
sponding nearly with their opposition. But in order to ob- 
tain the time of their opposition, it is necessary to reduce their 
right ascensions to some later hour: taking therefore seven 
hours later, that is at 8 A.M. May 5th, the right ascension of 
Mars was 14" 46" 59, and the sun’s right ascension at that 
time was 25 46™ 59%, leaving the right ascension of Mars from 
the sun’s right ascension 12 hours, which constitutes their op- 
position at that hour. 
The latitude of Mars, as deduced from his meridional alti- 
tude near midnight of the 4th and 5th, are respectively 0° 23' N. 
and 0° 20! 20" N. 
From the interposition of clouds for several nights, this was 
the only good opportunity that presented itself here of ascer- 
taining the position of Mars, to find the time of his opposition 
to the sun. ee 
DR. BURNEY ON THE LATE LUMINOUS ARCH. 
The luminous arch, or bow of light, that was observed in the 
evening of the 29th of March, at Jedburgh, Hawick and Kelso 
in Roxburghshire, and at Carlisle, was not seen at Gosport ; 
nor does it appear to have been visible to observers south of 
Cumberland. If the aurora borealis originates from a modifi- 
cation of electrical efluvium towards the polar regions, which 
is the generally received opinion, in that case we doubt not, 
from its appearances here in the years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 
1821, and the recent descriptions of the luminous arch, which 
at long intervals of time accompanies it, that the luminous 
3C2 arch 
