THE TRANSIT OF YENUS AS OBSERVED AT 



EDEN. 



By the Eev. "Wm. Scott, M.A. 



[^Sead before the Moyal Society, 11 January, 1875.] 



"We left Sydney on Tuesday, November 24th, and arrived at 

 Eden the next morning. Having landed our observatory, tents, 

 and instruments, together with a good supply of bricks and 

 cement for building piers for the instruments, my first care was 

 to find a suitable spot for the observatory. I was not long in 

 selecting an open space known as the Market-square, on a hill 

 overlooking both bays. This site has the advantage of being 

 near the telegraph line, and commanding uninterrupted views 

 of the ranges at some miles distance to the south and west, the 

 wooded sides of which I saw would alFord good reference marks 

 for the adjustments of the transit instrument in the meridian 

 and prime vertical. The day was nearly over before we had 

 carted all our baggage to the top of the very steep hill which 

 forms the principal street. A commencement however was made 

 of setting up the observatory, in which we were most efi"ectively 

 assisted by Mr. E-ussell, the Harbour Master, and his boat's crew. 

 On Saturday everything was ready, with the exception of mount- 

 ing the equatorial telescope, which was delayed in order to allow 

 the pier to become quite dry. An approximate meridian had been 

 determined by sun observations with a theodolite. 



Our instruments were — the 7i-inch equatorial telescope form- 

 erly used in the Sydney Observatory (with good driving clock), a 

 portable 2-inch transit instrument, a 4-inch and a 3-inch telescope, 

 the theodolite before mentioned, a clock and three chronometers. 

 The upper portion of the observatory was provided, besides the 

 usual shutter, with a frame fitting the opening, to which was 

 attached a bag of yellow calico, of somewhat conical form, having 

 a hole in the smaller end, through which the telescope and finder 

 could pass. This bag being secured round the middle of the 

 telescope tube, excluded all but yellow light, so that the whole 

 observatory answered the purpose of a dark room for photographic 

 work. 



This arrangement, though very convenient, was, I think the 

 least successful of Mr. Russell's contrivances, as the bag was liable 

 to be influenced by the wind, and so to interfere with the steady 



