HOGGAN'S OBSERVATIONS OF THE TRANSIT. 395 



sea horizon ; but when daylight broke some very thick black clouds appeared 

 near that point of the horizon where the Sun was rising. 



The Sun rose through a break in the clouds, and remained visible until he 

 had attained an altitude of about 10, when a very light breeze sprang up 

 and swept the clouds slowly across his face, totally obscuring it. The time 

 of external contact at Ingress had passed about eight minutes before the Sun 

 reappeared, and when first I observed Venus she appeared with one-fourth 

 of her disc on the Sun. 



There seemed to be a very great amount of atmospheric disturbance, 

 making the limbs of the Sun and Venus appear in a state of very rapid 

 vibration. At this time I was using the lowest power in the telescope 

 (about 70). 



In about a minute's time the Sun became obscured, and did not reappear 

 for an interval of eleven minutes. 



At 6 h . 21 m . 40 s . the cloud cleared away, and I again saw the planet with 

 about half the disc on the Sun ; and, as there seemed some prospect of the 

 Sun remaining unobscured for some short time, I shifted the eye-piece to one 

 with a power of 120, and used a yellow dark glass. 



The atmospheric disturbance round the limbs of the Sun and planet was 

 now rendered more apparent, and Venus appeared very much distorted. 



At 6 h . 24 ra . 35 s- 2 I noticed for the first time that part of the disc of Venus 

 outside the Sun's limb. It appeared of a reddish brown colour, whilst that 

 part of her disc which had entered on the Sun's disc was intensely black 



(Fig I.)- 



About two minutes after, small semi-opaque clouds obscured the Sun from 

 time to time ; and at 6 h . 28 m . 44 s , just about three minutes previous to the 

 time of internal contact by the N.A., the Sun became totally obscured. 



Before the reappearance of the Sun, Lieut. Moore, who was noting the 

 times, informed me that the time of contact had passed. 



At 6 h . 33 m . s . the Sun's disk could be just seen through some thin clouds, 

 obliging me to observe without a dark glass, and I fancied I saw the planet 

 still in connection with the limb of the Sun. Fortunately, just at this moment 

 (6 h . 33. 17 Sl 5) a break in the clouds revealed the Sun in all its brightness. 

 I had to withdraw my eye instantly, and put on a red dark glass, which, as 

 it happened, was of too light a shade ; but there was no time to exchange it 

 then, and I was very much surprised to see that Venus had not yet arrived 

 at her position of internal circular contact, the chord of cusps being a little 

 less than one-fourth of the diameter of the planet. 



3E 



