158 OUTLINES OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 



west side, and is seen in the morning, before the 

 sun rises. 



c; Though Venus in general is not visible at the time 

 of her conjunction with the sun, she has sometimes 

 been seen as a dark spot passing over the body of 

 the sun. This is the phenomenon called the Tran- 

 sit of Venus. Her diameter is then greatest, and 

 measures nearly one minute. 



156. As Venus proceeds to the westward, her 

 disk is seen as a crescent continually increasing, 

 at the same time that the diameter is diminish- 

 ing. At the elongation of 45, the disk is again 

 a semicircle ; and from thence it increases, 

 while the distance from the sun diminishes, till 

 the planet is lost in the sun's rays ; her orb 

 being almost a circle^ but its diameter not 

 more than one-sixth of what it was at the form- 

 er conjunction. 



a. The conjunction, which is preceded by the ap- 

 proach to a full orb, or that which follows the wes- 

 tern elongation of Venus, is called the superior 

 conjunction, as she is then farthest frpm the earth. 

 The other the inferior. 



b. The time of the greatest elongation of Venus is 

 about sixty-nine days before or after the inferior 

 conjunction, when she is between 39 and 40 dis- 

 tant from the sun, and comes to the meridian 1* 

 38* either before or after noon ; her disk is then 



like- 



