1820.] and the Planet Venus. 417 



edge of the earth's shadow was ill-defined on her disc, on 

 account of the penumbra. At 22 minutes past five, when she 

 was one-fourth echpsed, she immerged behind a citrostratus 

 cloud near the horizon, through which she afterwards had but a 

 faint appearance. Until she sunk beneath this cloud, the 

 echpsed part of her disc was visible to the naked eye throuo-h 

 the shadow of the earth. 



The moon set half echpsed, but scarcely visible for clouds, at 

 45' 50" past five o'clock. 



At the middle of the echpse the digits echpsed were more 

 than 10°, which is nearly equal to that of the late solar echpse. 



This echpse was rendered more interesting from its position 

 being about midway between the planets Jupiter arid Saturn. 



Gosport Observatory, Sept. 22, 1820. 



The Planet Venus. 



This brilliant planet has this week excited much curiosity 

 among the inhabitants of this town and neighbourhood, having 

 been seen with the naked eye, when the clouds did not inter- 

 vene, from eight, a. m. till late in the afternoon, by hundreds of 

 persons of all ages assembled in the streets, &c. for that 

 purpose. 



Formerly it was considered an uncommon observation to dis- 

 cover Venus with the naked eye at noon : we have, however, 

 for some years past, often seen her with the naked eye on both. » 

 sides of the sun through a clear azure atmosphere at mid-day, 

 while ranging in her orbit from 40° to 48° from that luminary ; 

 as she passes him from side to side to this distance, which is 

 considered to be her greatest elongation. 



On the 19th of last May she was at her greatest elongation, 

 and afterwards seen here with the naked eye on many clear days 

 till the 25th of June, when she was about 38° to the east of tha 

 sun, and appeared through a telescope only in the shape of a 

 crescent. 



On the 30th of July the planet came to her inferior conjunc- 

 tion ; namely, between the earth and the sun. In passing from 

 this point, she was on the 7th instant 41° nearly to the west of the 

 sun, and is now Sept. 22, 45° to the W. of him. By the 8th of 

 October she will have arrived at her greatest western elongation ; 

 till then, and for several weeks after, she may be viewed with 

 the naked eye in the open day, when the sky is clear in that 

 direction. 



Since the 1st instant, up to the present time, we have seen 

 this planet with the naked eye in fair weather at almost all hours 

 of the day while she was above the horizon. Venus changes 

 her phases like the moon, according to her position with respect 



Vol. XVI. N° VI. 2 D 



