Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1873-02-12
Something about Venus.


N.", aH-A.--.-.., NV osp1vnue, rne
Venus Of Troas, Or any other member Of
that particular Venus family which artists
have aroused from their solid marble Stun.
Der, and who now stand around in various
corners of the earth regardless oftho edicts Of
Worth or any other modiste who prescribcs
vestments and millinery, to be stared at
and wondered at, as monuments Of the
chiseliug skilof such quaint old stonecutters
as Canoya aud Thorwadsen but the Venus
known by old travellers as the halfway
house between our own well rounded real
estate and the luminous center around which
care supposed to royolye, and whose exam
pie We follow, if we are welregulated, in 60
ing to bed and getting up. The Venuswhich
attracts our immediate attention is the one
Just now talked about considerably in
d" scientific circles and which blind man
sings of as the fairest of stars" Being
the most beautiful Of all the planetary
system, from our standpoint, and having
a good record for regularity, anything per.
tanning to her movements can be reledupon
and her seeming -" cccentricities" are all
programmed long beforehand
The transits of Venus over the SUMS
centre, which are great periodical events,
occur alternately, at intervals of eight one
hundred and five and half, or one hum
bred and twenty-one and half years. The
last tho events Of this kind occurred in the
years 1861 and 1862 SO that no one, un-
less he has survived the period for cele.
bratiug his centennial birth day by nearly
four years, has ever been present at one Of
these exhibitions. The next coming transit
for which notes of preparation have already
been sounded along the line Of SapanS and
appropriations called for" is to occur De.
cember Sth 1874. In order to get GOOD
view, We are told by those who keep the
slate, that science must bivouac in very
high ATTITUDES and that the Alaskians and
Alusans are to be the favored front-seat
ers, but the " transit that is to follow il
eight years, or December 9th, 1882, is t,
be observable in more favored attitudes.
Then comes another long poriod-on
hundred and twenty-one and half year
to June 9TH, 2004, before there is another
transit, followed by one June 9th, 20l2
but these are little too far of to particu
larly interest the present generation, an
what new resources science may not dc
velopo previous to that time 90 aid in tn
sight seeing and planet piercing visions @
wisdom century older, it would be dar
gerous to speculate. Those who read DI
Mayo's "Never Again may perhaps g
an inkliug Of the coming apparatus throng
Mr.. Pianly's big telescope
4 As an astronomical unit, or data froI
which to enable accurate calculations
: the distance Of the earth from the sun, an
indirectly the distance Of other planet
these observations are regarded as of gre,
, Importance, and the scraps of history tel
! ing us how astronomers have become G,
cited and even overcome in some Instance
G at former occurrences Of this wonderfl
1 phenomenon, are probably no oxsggeri
I lions. That the coming transit should al
Q sorb the interest of the scientific world an
= concentrate all its powers to derive Their
9 from all the benefits TO science and sstrou
o my that the wisdom Of the present day al
a generation can compass, is highly hoaor
q bic to the noble impulses OF the human i
I ielleet, and just recognition of the sa
d Unity Of a spectacle that is beyond
comprehension.