Miscellanies. 175 



Both accompanied me in the College Observatory, while I made use of 

 our large Achromatic of ten feet focus. 



The weather was remarkably fine. For some time previous, the atmos- 

 phere was cloudy, with some rain, and the prospects were very discourag- 

 ing ; yet only an hour or two before the eclipse came on, the clouds broke 

 away, and presented a sky as clear and serene as could possibly be de- 

 sired. Indeed, we were great gainers by the previous state of the atmos- 

 phere, the sky being washed clean of all vapors, while yet the sun had 

 not shone long enough to disturb the tranquillity of the medium, by as- 

 cending and descending currents. Hence, there was a peculiar sharp- 

 ness in the line presented by the solar disk. 



Each of the three observers kept separate notes, but the observations 

 of the commencement of the eclipse differed scarcely at all from each 

 other, and none of them from the mean of the whole more than one fifth 

 of a second. The average of the three gave the following results, ex- 

 pressed in mean time : 



Beginning'^of the eclipse, . . ~ 3h. 21m. 14.47s.* 

 End, ... . . . 5h. 52m. 17s. 



The profile of the moon projected on the sun's disk, as seen through 

 the large Refractor (Clarke's Telescope) with a power of 180, presented 

 a very irregular outline. One mountain in particular, {Mons D'Alembert?) 

 near the centre of the margin, swelled out with striking prominence, hav- 

 ing the rounded figure of an obtuse cone. 



The darkness was not such as to make any of the stars visible to the 

 naked eye ; but a solemn, bronzy veil was thrown over the face of nature. 

 The changes in the Barometer and Hygrometer, were inconsiderable; and 

 the Thermometer suffered less reduction than it probably would have done 

 had not the sun a short time previous emerged from a cloudy atmosphere. 

 No change worthy of note was observed in the magnetic intensity. 



Mr. Mason had attached to his telescope a divided object-glass micro- 

 meter, by means of which he made multiplied observations on the solar 

 cusps, an account of which I am happy to subjoin in his own wordsj 



is the telescope in an advantageous position for making delicate observations. 

 The tube is a twelve-sided prism, strengthened internally by iron rings. The 

 following objects have already been seen, and the results will afford some idea of 

 its power. The nebula in Hercules between i] and ^ resolved into an immense 

 number of small stars : — the annular nebula in Lyra very bright and distinct : — 

 Debilissima inter 4 et 5 e L^vse, easily seen by direct vision : — small star near a 

 Lyree very bright and distinct : — £ Bootis, 4 and 5 « Lyrse of course easily sepa- 

 rated :—o- Coronas Borealis, rt Aquila;, and the star south following ^ Bootis very 

 distinctly double : — ^ Orionis triple : — companion of Rigel very bright, even when 

 the stars of the belt had disappeared in the morning light. 



* It will be seen that this is 42.47 seconds later than the time given in the 

 American Almanac. 



