VOL. XL.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. iQg 



A Collection of the Observations of the Solar Eclipse, Feb. 18, 1736-7, sent to 

 the Royal Society. N° 447, p. 175. 



1. Observed in Fleet-street, London, by Mr. Geo. Graham, F.R.S. p. J 75. 



Apparent Time. 



At 2^ lb"" 9' P. M. a small impression appeared on the sun's limb; he judged 

 the beginning to have been about 5 or 6 seconds sooner. 



A cloud covered the upper limb, and prevented a sight of the ending. 



Between 12 and 1 o'clock, he measured the diameter of the sun with a micro- 

 meter. At the time of the greatest obscuration, the lucid part of the sun's 

 diameter was equal to 392 such parts, as his whole diameter contained 2188. 



By a transit of the sun at noon, and of Sirius at night, which, compared 

 with preceding ones, he found his clock went too fast for mean solar time, 

 about one second in a day. 



2. The same Eclipse observed at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, in 

 Company with Dr. Edm. Halley. By Dr. J. Bevis, p. 176. 



Apparent Time. 

 At 2'' 25"" 39' P. M. the beginning. 



5 3 29 the end. 



At the end, the sun's limb appeared somewhat tremulous, and a small thin 

 cloud came over it. Dr. Bevis judged the time might be relied on to 2 or 3 

 seconds. 



3. At Edinburgh, by Colin Maclaurin, F.R.S. p. 177. 



In the history of eclipses collected by Ricciolus, there are very few said to 

 be annular; and of these, some have been controverted, as that seen by Cla- 

 vius at Rome, April 9, 156/ ; and that seen by Jessenius at Torgaw in Misnia, 

 Feb. 25, 1598; which are both disputed by Kepler. Some astronomers, an- 

 cient and modern, have been of opinion, that no eclipse can be annular ; and 

 since such seem to have been rarely observed, and Mr. Maclaurin has not met 

 with a particular description of any of them, he gives as full an account of 

 this eclipse as he can collect from the observations that were made at Edin- 

 burgh, and those communicated to him from the country. 



During the eclipse the sky was generally favourable in the southern parts of 

 Scotland; and though there were great showers of snow in the north, they had 

 sometimes a view of it. There was something very entertaining in the annular 

 appearance, a phenomenon that was equally new to all who saw it. 



VOL. VIII. Z 



