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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
edge of the sun close to a spot, by Captain Noble, on May 24. It gave 
the idea of a most extraordinary elevation above the general surface of the 
sun, and presented a perfect stereoscopic effect. So strong was the shading 
on one side of this great ridge of light that it appeared at one time 
probable that it was a spot greatly foreshortened. This was, however, 
afterwards found not to be the case, as the facula was quite isolated. This 
is a further proof that the faculae are considerably elevated about the 
surface of the sun. 
Lunar Discoveries . — Dr. Lee, the late venerable President of the Astrono- 
mical Society, gave an account, at the last meeting of the British Associa- 
tion, of the new mountains and seas discovered in the moon. He purposes 
to call them by the names of the house of Percy, and one after Professor 
Smyth, &c. 
Dawes 9 Solar Eye-Piece . — At the same meeting Dr. Lee also gave a 
description of this instrument, which has now been in use for upwards of 
ten years. The peculiarity and simplicity of its construction consist in 
having a dark diaphragm, pierced with a minute aperture, before the eye- 
piece of the telescope. The whole aperture of the telescope may thus be 
used ; and Mr. Dawes has employed it not only on refractors of 8-inch 
aperture, but even on Lassell’s 24-inch reflector, without having broken a 
single dark glass. 
Jupiter . — The aspect of Jupiter is always interesting from the changes 
which are continually taking place on his surface, and have been more 
than usually so during the past apposition. By the kindness of Mr. 
Buckingham, F.R.A.S., we are enabled to give three representations of 
its appearance ( see plate Y.) during the spring of the present year. The 
intense blackness of the central spot, in comparison with the belts, was 
very conspicuous. On the evening of April 28, the upper belt was com- 
pletely divided near the black spot, and a canal ran through it towards the 
east. A few detached spots on the central luminous belt were well seen. 
On the evening of May 7, the upper belt was speckled by a number of 
bright spots. A similar appearance was noticed by Mr. Lassel in 1850, 
who compared them to the disc of a satellite seen on the planet with a 
small telescope. Mr. Dawes has likewise been a witness to those luminous 
beads, and compares them to the smaller craters of the moon. Mr. 
Buckingham thinks that this intense black spot may be the same as that 
observed by Cassini in 1G65, and which, according to that authority, was 
the same as seen by him at intervals up to 1713, thus remaining on the 
disc of the planet for nearly half a century. It would, however, be 
difficult to verify this conjecture. Those observations were taken by Mr. 
Buckingham with a telescope of 51-inch aperture, by Wray, and was one 
of those which, for excellent defining power, obtained the prize medal at 
the Great Exhibition of 1862. 
Variable Stars . — A valuable and popular paper “ on the method of 
making and reducing observations of variable stars,” by Messrs. Knott 
and Baxendell, appears in the “ Astronomical Register ” of October, 1863, 
which will be found very useful to those desirous of undertaking such 
interesting observations. 
