VENUS ON THE SUN'S FACE. 75 



Delisle both suggested as desirable. Unfortunately, 

 Venus had not been consulted, and when the time of 

 the transit came she declined to enter upon or leave 

 the sun's face in the manner suggested by the astro- 

 nomers. Consider, for example, her conduct when 

 entering on the sun's face : 



At first, as the black disc of the planet gradually 

 notched the edge of the sun's disc, all seemed going on 

 well. But when somewhat more than half of the 

 planet was on the sun's face, it began to be noticed 

 that Venus was losing her rotundity of figure. She 

 became gradually more and more pear-shaped, until at 

 last she looked very much like a peg-top touching with 

 its point the edge of the sun's disc. Then suddenly 

 ( as by a lightning flash,' said one observer the top 

 lost its peg, and then gradually Venus recovered her 

 figure, and the transit proceeded without further 

 change on her part until the time came for her to leave 

 the sun's face, when similar peculiarities took place in 

 a reversed order. 



Here was a serious difficulty indeed. For when 

 was the moment of true contact? Was it when the 

 peg-top figure seemed just to touch the edge of the 

 sun ? This seemed unlikely, because a moment after 

 the planet was seen well removed from the sun's edge. 

 Was it when the rotund part of the planet belonged to 

 a figure which would have touched the sun's edge if 

 the rotundity had been perfect elsewhere? This, 

 again, seemed unlikely, because at this moment the 

 black band connecting Venus and the sun was quite 



