
1 ate bi Mr. Hursenen’s Odfervations 
‘tioned what was the magnitude of the’ flar; but, from the. 
circumftance of its becoming invifible to the naked eye, We 
may conclude, that it muft have been of the fixth or feventh, 
magnitude at leaft. The refult of this obfervation would in- 
dicate an atmofphere of fuch an extraordinary extent, fince at - 
the diftance of 36 femi-diameters- of the planet it fhould full 
be denfe enough to render fo confiderable a ftar invifible, 
that it will certainly not be amifs to give an obfervation or. 
twvo which feem of a very different import. : 
1783, O& 26. There are two {mall fixed ftars. preceding Mars, 
of different fizes; with 460 they appear. both dufky 
., red, and are pretty unequal; with 278 they appear 
confiderably unequal. The diftance th Mars of 
the neareft, which is alfo the largeft, with 227 mea- 
fured 3’ 26” 20”. Some time after, the fame 
evening, the diftance was 3’ 8’ 55’’’, Mars being 
retrograde. I faw them both very diftinélly. I 
viewed the two ftars with a new 20-feet refleCtor of 
1.8,7 inches aperture, and found them, as I expected, 
very bright. 
" O&. 27. I fee the two {mall ftars again. The fmall, 
one is not quite fo bright in proportion to the large 
one as it was laft night, being a good deal nearer to 
‘Mars, which is now on the fide of the fmall ftar;. 
but when I draw the planet afide, or out of view, 1 
fee it then as well as I did laft night, The cbaues 
of the {mall far meafured 2’ 56” 25’” *. 
* The meafures were accurate enough for the purpofe, though not otherwife 
to. be depended on nearer than, perhaps, fix or eight feconds, 
4 : The 
