Elements of the Solar Eclipse. 



Art. XXIII. Elements of the Solar Eclipse of February 12th 

 1831 : Together toith a particular Calculation for the Latitude 

 and Longitude of Albany. By Stephen Alexander, A. M. 

 Corresponding Member. (With a Plate.) 



From the earliest ages, the study of the celestial phenomena 

 has ever been an object of the most lively interest ; an interest 

 prompted alike by the sublime nature of the pursuit itself, and the 

 important practical results which'have attended it. Since that im- 

 portant period when the publication of the Novum Organum shed 

 upon the path of the philosopher a light which has shone forth with 

 a brightness continually increasing as the mists of ignorance and 

 error, which attended its dawn, have been dispelled, the advances 

 both in Physical and Practical Astronomy, have surpassed the most 

 sanguine expectations. In no other department of science have 

 the principles of the inductive method of reasoning been more hap- 

 pily illustrated, or has patient perseverance been rewarded by more 

 sublime and beautiful results. By the researches of modern as- 

 tronomers, have been developed those laws by which the entire 



when, first touched by the finger of the Almighty, it commenced 

 ductive of effects the most complicate:] and difficult of investiga- 

 te phenomena of the heavens tho' always interesting, are yet 

 sometimes rendered more particularly worthy of attention, by the 



as contributing in an essential degree, when observed w ith care, to 

 the greater perfection of astronomical science. Among phenome- 

 na of this kind, solar eclipses, and particularly those of a large size, 

 are universally allotted a prominent place, inasmuch as they afford 

 one of the best means, known for determining the difference of lon- 

 gitude between the places at which they are observed, or when ob- 

 served at a place whose longitude is well known, for correcting the 

 small errors to which the most approved solar and lunar fables are 

 still subject. 



