Proceeding's c^tlie Astronomical Society of London. 191 
A paper was read, on Double Stars, by James South, Esq. 
Since the publication of a paper containing many valuable 
observations on this point of Astronomy, by Sir William Her- 
schel, Kt., to which the author pays a just tribute of admira- 
tion, little has been added by subsequent observers. The 
improvement in fixed instruments since the paper alluded to 
was written has been so great, that the author has propos- 
ed to employ them in examining these interesting objects, and 
a considerable number of the observations contained in the table 
accompanying this communication, were made with an achro- 
matic telescope, capable, in favourable circumstances, of magni- 
fying 500 or 600 times, which is attached to an equatorial, 
used as a transit instrument. Mr South observes that an erro- 
neous opinion is prevalent, that it is impossible to separate double 
stars except in the absence of the moon and of twilight ; but 
that this is in very many instances unfounded, and that he has 
separated small double stars even during the presence of a me- 
ridian sun. 
Art. XXXV.— scientific INTELLIGENCE. 
I. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. 
ASTRONOMY. 
1. Mr Diels's OhservatioWjS on Venus. — Mr Thomas Dick of 
Perth observed the planet Venus on the 16th October 1819) 
when she was only 6 days and 19 hours past the time of her su- 
perior conjunction with the Sun. Her distance from the Sun’s 
eastern limb was then only 1° S8' 42''. From this observation 
Mr Dick concludes, 1. That Venus may be distinctly seen at 
the moment of her superior conjunction with a moderate magni- 
fying power, when her geocentric latitude exceeds 1° 44' 47" ; 
and, 2. That during the space of 583 days, or about 19 months, 
the time Venus takes in moving from one conjunction with the 
Sun to a like conjunction again, when her latitude at the time 
of her superior conjunction exceeds 1° 44' 47", she may he seen^ 
hy means of an equatorial telescope^ every clear day without ir^ 
