276 SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE ON VENUS CAMERON. 



There have been two superior conjunctions since then, and at 

 each of them a better observation than the above was made. 



At Denver, Colorado, on October 30th, 1894, Mr. Roger 

 Sprague saw Venus with the naked eye at 9.45 a. m. This was 

 thirty -one days before the superior conjunction of November 

 30th. 1894. The angular distance was 7 46'. Mr. Sprague 

 says that the planet was " quite a difficult object to distinguish 

 with the naked eye and required very persistent and careful 

 looking to make it out at all." The difficulty of his observation 

 led him to doubt the possibility of seeing Venus at all under 

 the conditions that prevailed on July 6, 1892, Venus was fiva 

 times as bright to him in October, 1894, as to me in July, 1892 ; 

 she was nearly a degree farther from the sun ; and Denver is 

 5000 feet nearer heaven and is blessed with a clearer atmosphere 

 than Yarmouth. As the feat of seeing the planet was found 

 extremely difficult under this fourfold set of favorable condi- 

 tions, it was quite natural for the observer to think it impossible 

 under the unfavorable conditions. I would think so too, had I 

 not had experience of its possibility, and of the wonderful 

 change that even a few minutes sometimes make in the seeing 

 quality of the atmosphere or in the clearness of some particular 

 patch of the sky. The clearest and purest blue is found 

 between broken masses of cloud, and it was in such a swept and 

 garnished bit of sky that 1 found Venus at her inferior con- 

 junction in 1892. Another thing she was 28 nearer my 

 zenith then than she was to Mr. Sprague's zenith when he made 

 his observation, and all observers know what a deal of difference 

 that makes. Had he looked again an hour and a half later, 

 when she was on his meridian, he would probably have found 

 her if his sky was clear absurdly easy instead of extremely 

 difficult. 



Mr. Sprague's observation was the best one near superior 

 conjunction that I had any record of up to that date. 



The date of the next superior conjunction was July 9, 1896, 

 at 9 a. m., 60 VV. time. 



