56 Litelli^encr and Mii:ccUaneotis Articles. 



coloured eliadows, — blue, yellow, and brown : on bringing a lighted 

 candle near the blue, it was changed to a perfect lake ; on bringing 

 the blue to overlap the yellow, a green was formed. 

 Cork, August 2G, 18r29. 



OCCULTATION OF ALDF.BARAN, ON OCTOBER 15TH, 18-!9, OB- 

 SERVED BY DR. BURNEY. 



In the evening of October 15th, about 9' 6"" mean time, an occul- 

 tation of Aldebaran by the moon was observed here ; as the moon 

 approached, Aldebaran became less ruddy, and when in contact it 

 showed very little colour. After a perfect contact of the star with 

 the moon's nortliern limb, at an angle of about 69 degrees from her 

 vertex, it was six seconds of time clinging, to appearance, to her en- 

 lightened limb before it disappeared. 



ON THE COPPEU-COLOURED LIGHT REFLECTED FROM THE 

 DARK PART OF THE MOON's DISC. BY DR. BURNEY. 



In the evenings of October 30th and 31st, 1829, the non-illuminated 

 part of the moon's disc, when near the horizon, reflected a dull 

 copper colour; a circumstance tiiat often happens while the sun, or 

 rather the earth, is passing through the southern signs of the eclip- 

 tic, but seldom if ever while passing through the northern signs. 

 By considering the relative positions of the sun and moon with that 

 of the earth, and the small angle subtended by the latter during the 

 first four days of the moon's age, when the phaenomenon is ex- 

 hi!)ited to the best advantage, the dull copper colour seen on the 

 moon's opaque body in clear weather, particularly when near the 

 horizon after sunset, appears to be effected by means of the solar 

 rays reflected to the regions of the moon, from the extensive 

 water in the Ethiopic Ocean and the Great South Sea, according as 

 the earth advances in its annual motion round the sun : as it is well 

 known the reflected solar rays from water are extremely bright, and 

 as they proceed through a clear atmosphere in the direction of the 

 moon, it is probable that they produce a faint light upon the dark 

 part of her disc. In the opposite season of the year, when the sun's 

 declination is north, there is more heat in this latitude, and conse- 

 quently more vapours in the atmosphere, which intercept the in- 

 cident and reflected solar rays, and do away their eft'ect ; nor is the 

 moon's angular position in the heavens so convenient to receive them 

 as in autumn and winter. 



Cold in southern latitudes as far as 56 or 51 degrees, is said by 

 late voyagers to be a mere chimera, and that snow is scarcely ever 

 seen on the ground in these parallels, although reverse to nature in 

 comparison of the low temperature and rigour of the winter in the 

 same parallels in the northern hemisphere ; therefore, snow on the 

 ground in South America, or the Cape of Good Hope, or New Hol- 

 land in any part of the year, cannot be the means of conveying the 

 sun's reflected rays to the regions of the moon; nor is the'snow in 



North America so situated during our winter, as to cause light from 



the 



