The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1875-01-16
The Transit of Venus.

oeen carefully observed Dy so many as
tronomers IL different parts of the world.
The transit was witnessed at a large
number Of stations in such favorable
circumstances as to make the results of
the observation most important. Prof.
Airy, Astronomer of the Royal Observa
tory at Greenwich, telegraphs to Prof.
Henry at Washington that the observa-
tions of Prof. Peters, chief of the Ameri-
can observing party stationed at Queens
town, New Zealand, were a great sue
cess, and that 237 photographs we're
made of the first contact. This with
other observations at remote points pre-.
viously announced, secures data for the
most valuable calculations. The fol-
lowing account of the observations at
the Hawaiian Islands by the British
party, taken from the Honolulu Com
mercial Advertiser, will be read with
great interest, even by the nnscieutific:
At few minutes past 3 O'Clock, you
could see everywhere in the streets
faces looking upward toward the sun,
with q piece of shaded glass in hand to
screen his fierce rays from mans weak,
yet ambitious, searching eyes. A minute
or two elapsed, and no change in the
dusky, red ball above. Another minu-
te gazing upward, and still no spot fecks
the face of the sOmbre, rubescent orb.
Ha i" ala Ia !"-there 1t Is, cries one
keen-sighted, close watching Kanaka
and now we begin to see, a little to the
right of the top or vortex of the sun, a
slight dent or notch; aud as we gaze on,
the dent or spot enlarges. advances with
in the borders of the disc; and as the
clearly defined, dark mscula upon the
rnddy plain is now distinctly seen by
every eye, an enthusiastic native says,
"Surely they who behold this were pro-
phets, and Lono was prophet"
But we must turn to where the real
star prophets were at work, close to
the beach, in the grounds known as
Honokaupu, which will hereafter be
desigated as our Point Venns." There,
In astronomical huts planned and con-
structed with great care, and whose in.
struments are erected on sold, deep.
laid bases of masonry, We find the in.
defatigable Chief, Capt. Tupman, ga
zing sunward through . telespectro-
scope, while his cO-observers, Mr..
Nichol and Lieut.. Noble, are watching
the disc of the great luminary through
their telescopes, and Lieut.. Ramsden is
making vigilant preparation with the
photohellograph to picture the path of
the planet across the burning field OF
the sun. Lieuts. Clspp, Oldham and
of II. b. NJ. S. Scout, assis-
ted the astronomers by recording the
times, &c.
What a moment, and what sense of
responsibility for three throughtful,
men, who have to deal with a
great crisis in fraction of q second,
while the audience of an enlightened,
expectant world Is sympathetically
present! Faithfully the heavenly trav-
eler comes, AS FIRST foretold by Kelper,
aud the Chief observes the first exter-
nal contact of disc and disc at 3h. 7m.
Is, and Lient. Noble at 3h. 7m. g., &C
cording to local mean solar time. The
agreement is singular, but must be re-
guarded as purely accidental. But this
is not the crisis of greatest moment; it
is when the perfect rounded orb of the
planet is within the sun, and the edge
Of its disc at the moment of leaving the
inner circle of the luminary indicates
the internal contact, the most interest
ing point to be observed in all the tran
sit phenomenon.
As the body of the planet was in
denting the suns rim, and advancing
on toward immersion within its body,
the Chief, who was not watching
through micTometer. saw the complete
disc of Venus defined about thirty sec
onds before the actual internal contact
was determined, aud for a while he i'm.
agined he had missed the critical phase
Of the phenomenon; but its revelation
of the complete circle OF the planet, be-
fore actual internal contact had taken
place, was owing to the effulgence OF
the corona or outer flame waves OF the
sun, which illuminated the whole sur
face OF Venus some time before COM
plete immersion--a phase of the phenol-
menOn never observed before, and its
detection on this occasion is due to the
optical perfection of the telescope in
'truments employed. Lieut.. Noble
could distinguish the complete disc of
Venus fully FIVE minutes before inter-
nal cont act; and Mr.. johnson, Observ-
InR at Waimea, on the island Of Kauai,
q -