Note on the Opposition-Magnitudes of Uranus and 
Jupiter. 
By Joun Terssutt, F.R.A.S, 
[Read before the Royal Society of N.S.W., 2 June, 1880.] 
In a note which I communicated to the Astronomical Section in 
May, 1878, I pointed out the was increase in the Nedesirheces : 
Uranus at each successive opposition, which increase will go o 
till the opposition of 1882, after which the Pore brightness will 
diminish. On the evening of 24th April, 1878, sixty-seven 
days after the opposition, I found the planet to be of: the 54 mag- 
nitude, the comparison being made by means of a small telescope 
with Nu (v) Leonis. The star and planet were seen in the same 
field of view, and were estimated to be equal. On 18th March 
last, or twenty-one days after opposition, I compared the planet 
with B.A.C, 3621 and 3622. The comparison, which was made 
by means of the naked eye and also a small telescope, showed the 
planet to be about equal to the former but superior to = latter. 
The . Catalogue gives 54 and 6 respectively as 
tudes of the stars, so that Uranus may, at the recent Spent be 
safely recorded as a star of the 54 magnitude. Some idea may 
formed of its conspicuous character when it is er 1 that I ae 
mined pretty accurately its distance from Re 
n ordi sextant. I may here a attention ge 
the circumstance that J hlter will, at its opposition in October 
next, be very near its perihelion, ‘and that the planet will in con- 
sequence be a very brilliant object. At each opposition near 
perihelion, which occurs every twelve years, it rivals Venus in 
brilliancy, and may be seen distinctly without a telescope in full 
sunlight. It was a splendid object in September and October, 
Observatory, Windso 
April 27th, ‘Y88o. 
