520 Chronicles of Science. [Oct., 



At Cambridge the eclipse will begin at 11 h. 9 m. a.m. (mean 

 time at Cambridge), reach its greatest phase at 12 h. 26 m. (when 

 • 808 of the sun's disc will be concealed), and end at 1 h. 42 m. p.m. 



At Oxford the eclipse will begin at 11 h. 1 m. a.m. (mean time 

 at Oxford), reach its greatest phase at 12 h. 18 m. (when 0*813 of 

 the sun's disc will be concealed), and end at 1 h. 35 m. p.m. 



At Liverpool the eclipse will begin at 10 h. 52 m. a.m. (mean 

 time at Liverpool), reach its greatest phase at 12 h. 8 m. (when 

 "804 of the sun's disc will be eclipsed), and end at 1 h. 24 m. p.m. 



At Edinburgh the eclipse will begin at 10 h. 53 m. a.m. (mean 

 time at Edinburgh), reach its greatest phase at 12 h. 7 m. (when 



*788 of the sun's disc will be concealed by the moon), and end at 



1 h. 21 m. p.m. 



Lastly, at Dublin the eclipse will begin at 10 h. 34 m. a.m. 

 (Dublin mean time), reach its greatest phase at 11 h. 50 m. a.m. 

 (when 0*812 of the sun's disc will be eclipsed), and end at 

 1 h. 6 m. p.m. 



We may remind our readers that on the 12th, 13th, and 14th 

 of November, shooting stars may be looked for. A year or two back 

 it was possible to indicate somewhat more definitely the time when 

 the display was to be expected ; but it needs only a careful study of 

 the phenomena presented by the successive showers, since the great 

 one of 1866, to prove that the meteor-system has been widening 

 out, growing in the meantime less and less rich : so that while we 

 may be tolerably certain of seeing many November meteors, there is 

 small chance of a display resembling that of the year 1866. 



The planet Jupiter will be well situated for observation during 

 the next quarter, coming to opposition on December 13th. Saturn 

 on the contrary is passing away from our nocturnal skies, and will 

 be in conjunction with the sun on December 22nd. Mars is return- 

 ing, but only at the end of the year will he be near enough to be 

 worth studying telescopically. He comes into opposition on March 

 19th, 1871. 



Proceedings of the Astronomical Society. 



Lieut. Brown supplies an important paper on December weather 

 in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar. It appears from the meteoro- 

 logical observations he records that there is every reason to antici- 

 pate favourable weather during the eclipse of December 22nd next. 

 From the 15th to the 31st December there were in 1860, 6 very 

 good days ; in 1861, 3 ; in 1862, 10 ; in 1863, 13 ; in 1864, 5 ; in 

 1865, 12 ; in 1866, 6 ; in 1867, 8 ; in 1868, 11 ; and in 1869, 7 ; 

 — the bad days in those years numbered, respectively, 5, 9, 1, 1, 2, 

 i, 2, 3, 1, 1. So that in all there were 81 good days and but 25| 

 bad ones, the remaining 64^ being indifferent. 



