ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA AND PROGRESS. 



A study of the outer ponnmbral edge leads to 



iirl'.isiuM that it is formed !>y rupture. 

 The Transit of Venus. Some account of 



tin.- arrangements made by different govern- 

 ments lor observing the transit of Venus, on 

 tlio Ktli of I >ecernber, 1874, has been given 

 in previous volumes. Complete reports from 

 all the expeditions sent out to observe the 

 phenomenon have not yet been received, and 

 in nee the resulting value of the solar parallax 

 remains undetermined. It can only be stated 

 that the observations were successful at Tschi- 

 ta. latitude 52 north; at Hobart Town, lati- 

 tude. 48 south; at Wladiwostok, Peking, Te- 

 heran, Thebes, Sydney, and more than twenty 

 other intermediate stations. It is obvious, how- 

 ever, that considerable time will be required for 

 an exhaustive discussion of all the observations. 

 Asteroids. Six minor planets were discov- 

 ered during the year, bringing the known num- 

 ber up to 140. Hertha, the 135th of the group, 

 was discovered by Dr. Peters, of Clinton, N. Y., 

 on the 18th of February. This is the twentieth 

 asteroid first seen by the Director of the Litch- 

 field Observatory. No. 136 was detected by 

 Palisa, at Pola, on the 19th of March, and No. 

 187 by the same observer on the 21st of April. 

 M. Perrotin, of Toulouse, discovered No. 188 

 on the 19th of May. The 189th of the cluster 

 was found by Prof. Watson, at Peking, China, 

 on the 10th of October. This being the first 



discovered in that empire, it was named 

 Ne- \V ha, from a Chinese goddess. It is the sev- 

 enteenth asteroid first detected by Prof. Wat- 

 son. M. Palisa, of Pola, discovered No. 140 on 

 the 13th of October, Of these asteroids, No. 137 

 is of the twelfth magnitude, No. 138 between 

 the eleventh and twelfth, and the remaining 

 four of the eleventh. 



The minor planet ^Ethra, No. 132, was dis- 

 covered in 1873, but trustworthy elements of 

 its orbit were first published in the Astrono- 

 mische Nachriehten of August 11, 1874. This 

 asteroid is distinguished by the great eccen- 

 tricity of its orbit, as shown by the following 

 comparison with the orbits of other bodies : 



NAME. Eccentricity. 



Mercury 0.3P66 



Polyhymnia 0.3397 



JEtnra 0.3819 



Second comet of 1867 0.5075 



Faye'B comet 0.55GO 



There is thus seen to be less difference in 

 form between the orbits of JEihr& and the 

 second comet of 1867 than between the former 

 and the' orbit of Mercury. It is noteworthy, 

 moreover, that the aphelion of Mars differs in 

 longitude but one degree from the perihelion 

 ;thra, and that the greatest distance of 

 the former exceeds the least of the latter. 

 These facts indicate the possibility of so near 

 an approach of the two bodies that the dis- 

 turbing influence of Mars on the asteroid may 

 materially modify the elements of its orbit. 



Comet*. Dr. Winnecke, of Strasburg, dis- 

 covered the first comet of 1874 on the 20th of 

 February, and the second on the 12th of April. 

 VOL. xiv. 5 A 



Neither became visible to the naked eye, and 

 their elements had no special resemblance to 

 those of any comet previously known. The 

 third was first observed by M. Coggia, at Mar- 

 seilles, on the 17th of April. It was first seen 

 by the naked eye about two months after the 

 date of its discovery, and early in July it hud 

 become a conspicuous object in the northern 

 heavens. It passed its perihelion on the 9th 

 'of July; its least distance from the sun be- 

 ing 62,000,000 miles. About the 20th of July 

 its tail was sixty-eight or seventy degrees in 

 length. The period of this comet, according 

 to Geelmuyden, is 10,445 years. 



Spectroscopio observations of Coggia's comet 

 indicated the presence of carbon. Dr. Hnggins 

 inferred from numerous examinations that the 

 nucleus was solid, heated by the sun, and 

 throwing out matter which formed the coma 

 and tail. Part of this was in a gaseous form, 

 giving the spectra of bright lines. The other 

 portion existed probably in small incandescent 

 particles; the polariscope showing that cer- 

 tainly not more than one-fifth of the whole 

 light was reflected solar light. 



The fourth comet of the year was discovered 

 by M. Borelly, of Marseilles, on the 26th of 

 July. Its perihelion passage occurred on the 

 27th of August, its least distance from the sun 

 being 91,000,000 miles. The fifth was detected 

 by M. Coggia, of Marseilles, on the morning of 

 August 20th, and the sixth by M. Borelly, of the 

 same observatory, on the 7th of December. 



Meteors. The display of August meteors 

 was observed by Prof. Daniel Kirkwood, at 

 Bloomington, Ind. The night of the 9th 

 when the maximum generally occurs was so 

 cloudy as to prevent observations. The even- 

 ing of the 10th, however, was perfectly clear. 

 Two observers counted sixty -four meteors from 

 ll h - 16 m - to 12 h - 16 m- As one person can no- 

 tice but a fifth part of the whole number, the 

 observations indicated a fall of 160 meteors per 

 hour. The usual characteristics of the Per- 

 seids were distinctly noticed. Their apparent 

 brightness, for instance, generally increased 

 from their first appearance till the moment be- 

 fore extinction. 



In the Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 2,014, 

 Ilerr Nicolaus von Konkoly gives some highly 

 interesting spectroscopic observations of the 

 August meteors. From the 7th to the llth 

 of the month he observed the spectra of 180. 

 The nucleus gave, in every instance, a contin- 

 uous spectrum. The trains of all gave sodium 

 lines ; those of the red meteors gave also stron- 

 tium or lithium ; and those of the green mag- 

 nesium. The spectrum of some of the largest 

 also indicated iron. The observations of the 

 November swarm entirely failed, not only in 

 this country but also in Europe. No return of 

 this shower, in considerable numbers, can now 

 be expected till near the close of the century. 



On the 27th of July a well-known mete- 

 oric epoch Prof. Tacchini, of Italy, observed 

 four fire-balls which entered our atmosphere 



