462 TRANSIT OF VENUS, 1874. KERGUELEN ISLAND. SUPPLY BAY. 



Time by the 



Sidereal Clock 



Baker. 



h ra s 



12. 19. 26'8. This I believe to be the moment of true contact ; the cusps were just beginning to 

 shake and get blunt \ \ so, and I could distinctly see Venus' second limb, 



with its faint light streak in perfect contact with the Sun's limb (Plate XVII., 

 Fig. 2). 



12. 19. 5ro. At this moment the black drop, if any, for there was very little, was at its biggest 

 or greatest stretch and about to break ; but I could all along, since the last 

 recorded time, distinctly see Venus' limb inside the Sun's, and only a slight 

 shaky black shade between the two (Plate XVII., Fig. 3). 



12. 20. 8 - o. At this moment there was no more shade between the two limbs ; it disappeared. 



Venus never assumed a pear shape. I did not see any brightness or 

 wavyness to the planet's preceding limb while it was on the Sun. The 

 illumination of the outer or following limb was a steady brownish-white 

 light, with black speckles here and there, like irregularities on the planet's 

 surface, quite distinct ; and so it remained until all shade had disappeared 

 between it and the Sun's limb, when it disappeared also. 



I used an Airy eye-piece for the correction of atmospheric dispersion, of 

 power 145, the solar reflecting prism, and a blue achromatised wedge. The 

 sun never shone with full brightness. Occasionally thin filmy clouds passed 

 over it. The wedge was not moved during the observation of ingress. 



Twenty minutes or half an hour afterwards it clouded over hopelessly. 



[CYRIL CORBET.] 



REPORT of LIEUTENANT Gr. B. COKE, R.N., on his OBSERVATION of the TRANSIT 

 of VENUS, 1874, December 8, at SUPPLY BAY. 



[The telescope used by Lieut. Coke was an achromatic of 3 J inches aperture 

 and 46 inches focal length, by Dollond, lent from the Cambridge Observatory. 

 It was mounted, with vertical and horizontal motions, upon a tripod stand. 

 The telescope was not fitted with any special means for viewing the Sun, 

 beyond " dark heads " to screw on to the eye-pieces.] 



My telescope was situated about 95 yards to the east of the observatory, 

 near the water's edge ; the legs of the stand were imbedded about 6 inches in 

 the ground, and rested upon foundations of stone. Mr. Smith Dorrien 

 recorded the time from the sidereal cKronometer S. 



The sun being covered by a transparent cloud, I began to observe with a 

 power of 61, without a dark glass. 



