•[ *47 ] 
darker ground. The obfervations of Mr. le Mon- 
nier in Scotland, in the year 1748, fecmed to leave 
little room for doubt : and it is to be hoped that ob- 
fervations made with larger and better indruments 
than mine, and in places where the eclipfe was an- 
nular, or nearly fo, will fully fettle this point. At 
the time of the middle here, the Moon’s centre was 
about 39 degrees high, and therefore the Moon ap- 
peared under a greater angle to the eye of the obferver 
than if feen from the earth’s center, by about 1 8 fe- 
conds. The true horizontal diameter from the above 
obfervations was therefore 29' 27"; which is but 7 " 
lefs than according to the lated and bed tables ; 
which tables may perhaps give the Moon’s diameter 
too large, becaufe condrudted from obfervations made 
with refracting telefcopes, through which the diame- 
ters, both of the Sun and Moon, mud neceflarily 
appear under an angle fomewhat enlarged. 
About the time of the middle of the eclipfe, I care- 
fully attended to the didance of the cufps : becaufe, 
from fome calculations which had been laid before 
the public, the Northern limit of the annulus was to 
pafs within 4 or 5 miles of this place ; and by other 
accounts I might have expected to have found myfelf 
condderably within the path of the annular penum- 
bra. But as nearly as I could edimate by my eye, 
the didance of the cufps was not lefs than 4 of the 
whole circumference of the Sun. The quantity of 
the Sun’s light was now very fenfibly diminifhed ; a 
very didinct halo was feen at the didance of 12 or 
14 degrees round the Sun; and we might have ex- 
pected to have feen the planet Venus, had not the 
Iky been covered with a condderable hazinefs. As 
U 2 this 
