Year: 1875

THE agony is over! Venus has made
her transit of the sun and seems none
the worse for her temerity. She was a
little tardy. Sex may account for this,
that is if we accept the British Nauti-
cal Almanac" as authority.


The time of internal contact was two
minutes fifty-four seconds later than the
almanac maker hath it.


We had cloudy, dull days for two
months before the Sth, and many of us
had misgivings as to the likelihood of
the success of our observers, but when
the day dawned all doubts were dispelled,
for We had a day made for the occasion.
Telescopes, opera-glasses, bits of window
glass-in fact anything that was trans
parent-had been prepared over smoky
lamps, and long before the hour for the
phenomenon thousands of persC ms, young
and old, were on the lookout for some
thing to happen.


When the first contact was detected a
feeling of disappointment came over the
masses, for they had expected something
more pronounced To them it was a
tanae affair.


To the observers stationed here by the
British Government the sensation was
quite different; for them it was full re-
ward for years of patient study and
preparation. A local writer gives the
following graphic account of the scene
within the inclosure erected by the
British observers:


What a moment, and what a sense of
responsibility for three thoughtful,
studious men, who have to deal with a
great crisis in fraction of a second,
while the audience of an enlightened,
expectant world is sympathetically
present Faithfully the heavenly trav-
eler comes, as first foretold by Kepler,
and the chief observes the first ex-
ternal contact of disc and disc at 3h.
I'm. Is. and Lieut.. Noble at 3h. I'm. 3s.,
according to local mean solar time. The
agreement is singular, but must be re-
garded as purely accidental. But this is
not the crisis of greatest moment; il 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 interesting
point to be observed in all this transit
phenomenon. AS the body of the planet
was indenting the suns rim and ad-
vancing on toward immersion within its
Body the chief, who was now watching
through micrometer, saw the complete
disc of Venus defined about thirty sec
onds before the actual internal con
tact was determined and for a
while he imagined he had missed the
critical phase of the phenomenon; but
this revelation of the complete
circle of the planet before actual inter
nal contact had taken place was owing
to the effulgence of the corona or outer
flame waves ofthe sun, which illuminated
the whole surface of Venus some time
before complete immersion-a phase of
the phenomenon never observed before,
and its detection ON this occasion is due
to the optical perfection of the telescope
instruments employed Lieut.. Noble
could distinguish the complete disc Of
Venus fully five minutes before internal
contact. And Mr.. johnson, observing at
Walmea, on the island of Kauai, saw
this complete disc no less than twelve
minutes before the complete entrance Of
the planet. This luminous presentation
of the full round body Of Venus when
still only partially across the suns cir
Gle was calculated to dazzle and deceive
our astronomers; but like faithful
watchers they neglected not one mo-
ments observation, and as they scruti-
nized the advancing planet they dis
cerned approximately the phase OF
internal contact, which the chief re-
corded at 8h. Bonn. 65.7s. and Lieut.,
Noble at 3h. 35m. 64.4s,