The New York herald., 1876-12-24
TRANSIT OF VULCAN.

To THE EDITOR ov HERALD
Notwithstanding the discovery that webers obscrva-
ton Of April OF the present year merely solar
spot, which at Madrid and Greenwich, ths
existence OF the ntra Mercura planet to be the
main topic Of interest IN astronomical circles. Procs
sor Pny Earle Chase has recently announced that in
1879 he gave ms tho harmonic distance OF tins planet
from the sun .2o6 being nearly between Kirk
woods hypothesis, .al5 Lcvcrrler's deduction from
the Ave selected observations pol In Goud's Astro
romieai Journal for August $780, viii be found my
hypothesis which will quote:-
"Cpon comparing the series Ia l-3 rs. 3.s, &c.
with the periods Of the planets, We find that each
planet has period little longer than assumed
ratio to tho next INTERIOR excepting the OF the
earth and vonus, where the Complementary fraction Is
tho ratio, and the period Is little less The OF
tho planet next interior to Mercury will be 80 80. and
It's period about thirynyo days, and the next ratio
VIII DO 55l44 or Its complement s9l44 the latter CIV
Ing period of twentyonc days, which is but day
longer than the period assigned by Leverrier 10 Les
caroauts new planet, upon tho assumption OF crcu-
lar orbit; or, " wc adopt the Complementary ratio,
$3.50, with period Of about hty three days. the next
ratio. 55ll4, gives again the period OF twenty
days 1t seems, therefore, extremely probable that
there Is planet between Mercury and Iescarbaut's
new planet with approximate period either of thr-
ty-hve or Of dfty-three days
The distance corresponding TO this period Is 204.
which agrees still nearer with Levcrrsers dcduc,ons
Notwithstanding my long uns uccessiu search for tho
planet, for weeks in succession. In several different
years am naturally preposscsscd In favor OF the prob
ability OF the existence of planet with the
indicated. and glad that Jansen has called atten-
tion to the possibility OF observing by the spectre
scope by the method proposed In the Journal Of Sci
and ARTS Tor February. 1874 for close approaches
ala NJ
Guilty in accepting Leverrers conclusions twill be
observed that he assumes tho ascending node to bc
at ls2 degrees longitude. and the inclination to be
IL degrees. the plane which he derived in 1859 from
Lescarbauts observation. In the diagram, In which,
for tho sake OF pcrspicuy, the vertical Dimensions
are multiplied by six. this line is marked "Lcsc" II
this were tho plane OF the orbit Lummis could not
have tho planet in 1852; stil less could Side
botham have In 1S49 for the limo passes far to
the north Of the sun at both daies 1t Is necessary
then, to admit that Lescarbaults observation was IN.
accurate, and We will modify Just enough permit
the planet to be upon the extreme edge OF the
SUMS disk in 1862. How much change would
that requrcs Instead VI crossing the disk the sun
at distance OF minute from the suns limb must
have passed minutes from the limb Instead of
traversns chord OF degrees It have travcrsed
chord OF % degrees Is It likely that Lescarbault.
even without instruments would have committed such
gross inaccuracissS But this Is not all. Instead Of
tho duration OF the transit being 1h. I'm. must have
been 4h. SON. Yet he Processes 10 give tho time of
ngress ana OF egress, each with possible error OF
second 10 five seconds and claims have soen the
planet within few seconds from the time OF its In.
gress II 10 not hero question whether his impro.
vlscd pendulum would swing sidereal seconds nor
question whether his watch equal to Captain Cut
ties, keeping good time If set back nftoen minutes In
IN afo md farv vsvd half hnue In tha
Ing but whether he has made mistake Of over three
hours in the duration OF the transit II seems TO me
absolutely inconceivabc. II he tho planet at ali
he must have been that at time its orbit
would be known and the truth would bc known with
regard to tho phenomenon he saw.it and he could
have had NO motive to falsify Could Lescarbault
been mistakens But there are Ave observations
any three of which Lsverricr considers sufficient to
establish tho period OF tho orbit Then. by the evi
dence Of the other observers, the planet must have
been actually on the suns disk that very day and
Lescarbault must have seen IT,
There is no difficulty In reconcng the two observa-
tons in October with Lescarbaults orbit but when
60 back to tho observation Of Sidcbotham lS49 the
difficulty ncreascs for In order that the planet should
be upon tho disk at all In ls49. have passed
still moro nearly central In 1859 We cannot escape
from the dilemma by assuming that either Lummis
sidebotham were mistaken; for would be incredible
shat either. and still incredible that both should
have selected period for fictitious mistaken OBJ
scrvation exactly coincdent with the passage
the planet outside OF the suns disk before the orbit OF
the planet was known. Should assume that differ
ent asteroids have been observed OF belt at tho dis
tance OF go, but moving in different planes some OF
them so different to their transits IN other
months, we have still the difficulty that OF the very
time that Sidcbotham aud Inmmis OF those
planets upon the suns disk, that by Lcscarbaut
Dccuppis and Fritsch passing bv directly 10 the
north Of IL, q condition which would seldom apply
to tho group OF than 100 asteroids outside or
tho orbit OF the planet Wars
But although Lesrarbault could not have committed
gross either in the duration OF the transit
or in the length OF the chord described II would rot
DO surprising, considering the manner In which his
observations wero made VI he had made large
in the position angles he has given. Perhaps by tho
aid OF q 1ttlc Imagination, we discover how he
made them and correct them He observes by hts
psstcboard circle the anglo from the vcrtex the
gress and egress, and sets thcm down upon his pine
board and proceeds 10 determine the angles with the
called away to attend his patients. and come days
afterward resumes hts calculations; but, having NO.
elected TO make his record clear, he concludes that
those latter angles the angles IRON the vcrcx and
they published. excepting that instead OF 67
degrees originally doduced he makes II by
OF transcription or OF reading 81 degrees These
errors of such character that but for the hight
nothing TO indicate their existence. Yet they mako a
vital difference in tho position Of the orbit for takes
the direction OF the line In the diagram marked
"Park, and they are the only errors which
amateur observer would be likely commit which
will furnisl even plausible solution OF tho difficulty.
TRANSIT OF VULCAN.