PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 11 



cause at work. It is proposed to again observe the second 

 test, that of the bending of the ray of light from a star passing 

 close to the sun, at an eclipse of the sun which will take place 

 on September 20th, 1922. The rare event of an annular 

 eclipse of the sun visible in the British Isles occurred on 

 April 8th last, but as the annularity was complete only in the 

 more northern parts of Scotland, I fear that it was not seen by 

 many from this county. The sky was fortunately clear and 

 the eclipse was well observed, I believe, everywhere. The 

 temperature fell as much as 9 and the colour of the sky was a 

 curious leaden hue, elsewhere described as purplish. On Jan- 

 uary 24th, 1925, there will be a total eclipse of the sun in which 

 the track of totality will just graze the Western Hebrides, but 

 on June 29th, 1927 a total eclipse will occur which will be visible 

 from St. David's Head to Whitby. As the next British one 

 will not take place until 1999, we had better take advantage of 

 this opportunity. Many new minor planets have been dis- 

 covered of late years, chiefly by the aid of photography, two 

 plates taken of the same portion of the sky shewing the 

 movement in the interval of any planet included. A much 

 brighter one than usual was discovered in January, 1920, and 

 given the name of Alphonsina by a Spanish Astronomer. 

 Another, believed to be a planet, has a cometary orbit, but no 

 nebulosity has been observed in it. The Lyrid meteors appeared 

 about April 21st, 1920, in fair numbers, and the show of 

 Taurid meteors in the first few days of November was 

 exceptionally good, but the November Leonid meteors, about 

 November 14th, celebrated from the magnificent shower in 

 1866, of which I had the good fortune to be a witness, were 

 few in number. There is some reason to believe that a shower 

 of meteors which was observed on June 28th, 1916, is con- 

 nected with the Pons-Winnecke comet which is now faintly 

 visible, and that, as this comet will on this visit pass nearer to 

 the earth than on the last occasion, we may have a more 

 brilliant shower about June 27th next. Some fine meteors 

 were seen on March 1st and 2nd, at Bristol and elsewhere. 

 A splendid detonating fireball was observed on March 16th, 



