246 REPORTS FROM THE SECTIONS. 
Note on the Geocentric Conjunction of Mars and 
Saturn, on July 1, 1879. 
By Joun Tessurt, F.R.A.S. 
[Read before the Astronomical Section, 1 November, 1878.] 
As the present meeting of the Astronomical Section of the Royal 
Society is the last of the series for the current session and the 
members do not again meet till the middle of next year, I think 
it will be desirable to draw their attention to the remarkable 
circumstances connected with the next conjunction of the planets 
Mars and Saturn. I find from an approximate calculation for the 
centre of the earth, that the conjunction in right ascension will 
take place at 5h. 50m. in the morning of July 1, 1879, mean time 
The ey will be slightly greater than 
this, owin e phenomenon will be invisible to 
Eu and America, but it may be well seen from t rt of 
the earth. To observers without telescopes the planets will at the 
time indicated appear to be but one object, and, doubtless, in the _ 
ages when astronomical observers were unprovided with telescopes 
Mercury approached Venus and Jupiter within about the same 
stance on December 5, 1859, and April 24, 1869, respectively ; 
but these phenomena were unfavorably situated for observation. 
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