E. S. Holden— Observations of the Transit of Venus. 73 
“IL (a) 13" 26" 59°. By prolonging the contour of Venus, 
mentally, this is the time of geometric contact, though the 
limbs are connected. (5) 13% 27™ 29°. ‘The contour is inside, 
but the connection still persists. (c) 18°27" 47% Same as 
before. (d) 18" 28" 0% The first instant that the cusps of the 
sun meet round Venus. Air extremely unsteady.” Everything — 
preceding this was written out before leaving the dome. The 
minute and second of I. were noted by myself and they are 
correctly recorded. The minute of IL. was noted by Mr. 
Conradson and it may need a correction of +1". This affects 
Mr. Comstock’s observations of IL. also. 
Chronometer Comparisons. 
S = (Chronometer) = M = mean time clock keeping 
Chicago time. 
12) 45™ 258 a0 19" S17: 59" 
13 38 50 == 20 45: ° 13 
H{ = (Sidereal clock) = M (Mean Time clock) 
125 44™ 998 a ee ao" Or 
13 44 50 as. $0.48 41 
On these observations I have to make the following remarks. 
(a) I should take to be the time of first contact. (b, c) the 
ligature persists, but in both of these phases the contour of 
Venus prolonged by the eye lies inside the limb of the sun, 
especially so in (c). (d) This is clearly far past II, but it is the 
first time that the cusps of the sun meet, and even then they do 
hot persist until about 11° later. Contacts III and IV were 
lost. A snow storm set in about 22. The sun was not visible 
at its transit over the meridian. I was particularly surprised 
™ 1°0. The planet came about where it w 
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