Observafions of the Transit of \'eiiu.s. 3.S'J 



sight. I should suy that it first appeared to my eye when the 

 planet was a little more than half-way on the sun, and disap- 

 peared about a minute before the planet reached 2d contact. 

 This line of light, marking out the portion of Venus's disk not 

 on the sun, changed its a])pearance considerably while my atten- 

 tion was fixed upon it. 



I first saw a faint arc of light marking out only a few degrees 

 of the disc not on, and farthest from, the sun. A little later, a 

 fine semi -circular line of gold Avas seen ; and finally, this line 

 broadened near the sun, and could not be seen farther out, giv- 

 ing the appearance of two wings of light. 



In the second case, the line of light appeared to be the con- 

 tinuation of the dark rim of the planet. 



In the third case, the bases of the wings resting on the sun 

 were plainly out of the line of the dark circnmference. I 

 watched for the repetition of these ai)pearances between the 2d 

 and 4th contacts, but failed to see anything. 



The sky between the 1st and 2d contacts was much clearer of 

 haze than between the 3d and 4th. 



At 2d contact, I saw no indication of the "black drop." 

 The tangency of Venus's disk and that of the sun was well seen. 

 During the passage of Venus over the sun's face, I observed her 

 disk with magnifying powers, as follows : — 48^95 — 165 — 385 — 

 but saw no indications of an atmosphere. 



The disk of Venus did not appear to be uniform in blackness, 

 but to be spotted with grayish or whitish matter, reminding one 

 of patches of snow. This was seen under the different magnify- 

 ing powers used. When Venus neared the 3d contact, a very 

 peculiar phenomenon Avas observed. The preceding limb of 

 Venus was seen to be darker than the central portion. Later, 

 the edge of the planet became of a bluish-black color around to 

 the following limb. 



The phenomena connected with this were veiy distinct. 

 When the planet was near 3d contact, a faint ''black drop" 

 was observed for a brief time. It disappeared very shortly, and 



