New-York daily tribune., 1858-11-26
..eops Of good magnify ing power yoo csa ssdty DE-
teet fe ereecent form.

escope Of good msgnhying power yoo csa ssnty de-
tect ita ereecent form.
Since Be.,od and Homer sang in Old Greece and
I.nial twenty Eve centuries agoin Jer~al'zn,
v.pus hss occueed place IN history. Indeed, sse a
p-es u story thousand Yeas earlier a. havlng distn-
go,-h.d .te reign Il Ogygee the mot soc'ent mon
arch 81 C;i.sr- by changing her color. disms'er hg-
uIs. snd Ter course. By reason Of her incompatible
sp.r6or anong the stars; of her gradual disappear
spcs bsirg bioted out % it were from the evening
sky and her appearance IN It After long absence;
Of Ter varying sze and brsucy and OF her Close a.
tendance upon the sun, long 81 she rrans IN view,
she u,u.t have attracted the attention OF the early
Ctaldean shepherds, who watched BY night their
o,ks ard the stars together she has engaged the
vscbfsl scrutiny Of astropomer. in all ages III 20
rerncus, the early part Of the sixteenth century,
brcueh to gst the true planetary system sa'-gases
must have been sorey puzzled TO see the oflsnt@st
ssr in the ky by slow degrees melt eatrsIy sway IN
the west, and after another, cl equally errahc
habits, cone gradually toto view in the ess; before
tie dawn sbd grow and grow till It rivaed IN glory
the sisr which had laely disappeared. Under the old
Polemaic theory Of the universe, wbic1 placed the
earth in the cener and made all the heavenly bodes
r rform daily rouno II, must have been long
before the icen'ty Ct these two bodies vas guessed
Al yesrs and years OF patient observations AMI care
ful calculations mu-t have succeeded IL The shrewd
coniectare before satron would concede the pos-
sbility Of such strange things thing, az far ss
they saw without it, Ike in the heavens. But
when ths Jobn the Baptist Of the new doctrines, this
for,runnsr of Newton n sored and unto ded the ma
iestc systsm which bears his name teaching that the
eatL ,eyoyed around the sun the center, aud that
between them there were placed, in smaller orbits,
Mercury ard Venus, Re was net with the objection
that. if these two plare,s moved within the esrths
bt, they ought to EXHIBIT phaseslike the moons. The
sagscious philosopher Acknowledged that the infer
cree was vad ard boldly predicted that such phases
voulo ole dsy lie seen. Whist delight ard veneration
Of the memory of the ilustous dscoverer mnst have
been excited in the heart of the equally llustrous
Gaeo when, in 1870 be directed the telescope which
be LAD lust constructed if Dot invented to the disk Of
venns and verifei the prophecy OF Copernicus!
In order to have a conception Of the rels.ive
orbital motions of Venus and the earth it s necessary
t. get nd OF the illusion o.he apparent moots Of the
SUD upd the planet in the heavens, and to scsua-
ze, in imagination, the true position Of the three
Suppose them 10 be estimated . straight line with
each other Vel us IN the middle, and suppose Venus
TO begin her couIse round the SUM- the earth and sun
remaining at rest. II is plain that tie lsnet would be
in view of the earth on one side of the suu during the
first half Of her revolution and the other SIDE dur
ing the last half. Now suppose the earth, instead OF
remaining stationary, start 1t the same moment with
the plauet and 10 move in the general direction
II both performed their revolution in the time,
they would of course, always remain in the same
straight line with the sun. But the plaret moving in
.maer orbit, has shorter year than the earth and
80 sweeps ahead of it, When the planet has perform
9. half Of s revolution the earth has got we'll on its
way also aud in condititn TO the planet the
same side of the sun for some time logger. IT, now,
the planet made its circuit in half the tune the earth
requires it would reach the standing point at toe same
time the earth reached the middle point OF its orbit;
and having remsired visible to the earth the same
eide Of the sun up to this time that Is throughout its
entire year. would pass to the opposite side Of
the sun ard remain in that position with respect to the
earth during another revolution. Bu a. its year is
equivalent to about seven and half Of our months,
in,ead of Fix It will be seen the side OF the
sun during a longer poriod the actual time Is nre
months and half When on the eastern 4 de, it is
known as the Evening Star and when on the western,
a. the Morning Star. Tee former the Latins knew as
Vesper the latter as Lucifer; the Greeks called them
by the corresponding names Of Hesperus and Pnos-
phorus.
Venus ur Mercury from having their orbits within
tbe ea,th-, are called the inferior planet in coDtrads-
trctiop to these which, moving in orbits without that
of the eath, are known as the supertr planets.
When the earth, sun and an inferior planet are iu
tucb relative position as would cause them to be in
straight lire vito each other provided other orbits lay
in the same plane they sad 10 be in conjunction
When the plane, is between the sun and the earth,
they are said to be in inferior conjunction, and when
the sun between the planet and the earth they are
said TO be in superior conjunction. Now it might eas
" happen ,ua in passing ,hess points of cotuuctiou,
tie three bodies though not moving in tine came plane,
should lie in a straight line with another. In case
of sppe, ior conjunction the disk OF the sun woud
then nterpose between the earth and the disk of the
planet ard the latter wou1 he eclpsed from sight,
s,pposirg not have been lost in the solar rays in
is approach; while in Of inferior copjdnciion,
the planet would interpose between the earth aud tho
SUM- and It's disk could be seen to traverse the suns
dick from eide to ride. This latter phenomenon is
called transa. The trans!ts Of Mercury are much
more frequent than those Venus consequence of its
being esrer the and havcg shorter year. Those
OF Venus cannot bsppen under snyc'rcunSsbces more
than twice in the longest life tue, and are among the
most inter- sting phe it the privilege and
business Of the astronomer to observe. by observe
upon the last transit OF this planet which occur.
red in l169 col Quoted with Minute care aud accuracy
in various :egors Of the earth remotely apart, the dis
tsnce of the s from the earth determined; and
iIcm that as bass have been calculated the dimen.
sions Of the solar system Astronomy is mainly 10.
deb'ed fer these grand results to Haley, who frst
pointed out the method and procured its adoption.
There Is sccount on record Of transit Of either
planet across the Guns disk, till the year 1853. 10
that year transit Of Venus occurred which is invest
ed with great interest both from the fact that il was
the rst wstched by human eyes, as far a. history
informs us, ard fiom its being known to only two hv-