THE TRANSIT OF VENUS.

Evening Star, Issue 3797, 26 April 1875, Page 2

THE TRANSIT OF VENUS.

We find the following very interesting letter m.thfc ‘Utica Herald;’ U.S., of the 12th February last. Queenstown, Otago, N.Z., tv . jbec. 11, 1871 • W S^,, ~ Tbe roonthly inail leaves tonight for San Francisco, and I cannot let it go without writing to you a few words announcing our almost complete success in observing the transit of Venus the day before yesterday. It is a relief after almost a year’s anxiety, and 1 / et 9 mt J e fully realtse our good fortune. At three minutes past one o’clock, according to computation, first Contact had to occur. In the mormug telegrams dropped in from - all parts of the isiaud (tho telegraph,wires and full apparatus, by disposition of the New Zealand GOTernment, being led into our transit bouse), ram here, clouds there, clouds alloverNew Zealand, olondft also at Queenstown, Maior Palchiefotthe English party, had established a * some miles from Christchurch, with five branch stations. Lieutenant Crawford, of the southermost branch station, fit WW ° cl^ k telegraphed-” ,UI overcast! What hope have you ?” I answered” Overcast also here, hut I do not despair yet. Cloud* sf!. thuL , the clouds remained, nevertheless, and other telegrams came—“ Raining at Dunedin,” “Earning at Bluff barbon” * in the meantime ,we examined our instruments a last time saw that the clockworks of ■hellostat for photographic lens, and of eauatonal, ran well; the photographers put their glass plates (numbered from one to 200 in their right order, looked after the water Supply (we had a little aqueduct built, so as to haveanmnmg stream from a spring 600 feet dißtnuf pounng in over the sink in the photoW building), tned the baths, &c meters were distributed, and I arranged my seat, table, steps, sun curtain, & o>l i n the equatorial house. The time drew newer 3 nearer, but still the clouds wore hiding the T: 1 “ust .confess I got a little nervous I J . mt . h th « equatorial; two minute* yet until beginning- and the sun suddenly ha* gamed the victory 1 It shines out brightly and remains so for nearly two hours. Sy order, everybody does his duty silently, from the policeman on watch outside the gate of the enclosure to the rather talkative young assistant photographers. So silent is all that in mv house, sixty feet off, I can distinctly hear the springing of the photographic slide-everv clasp convincing me of one picture ftioro. In the wall of the photographers’ house we had arranged a speaking trumpet ; overv now and then there came a call:—“ Up. down east, west!” This, was to the Assistant kS.wSt 1 , mirror - That throws the hght through the lens of the photographer^ - has a length of forty foet. The clockwork driving that mirror some'dm«» needed a little correction -therefore In my enclosure I continue to measure disJf™"? ° f 8 a^ d Sun ’ 8 Umb * Then, after the planet had far advanced upon the disc, took advantage of the occasion for measuring with double-image micrometer the apparent diameterot Venus, thus determining (for the first time, as 1 believe, since the creation of the world) the real size of Venus with the accuracy of about the three-hundredth part of its' value. At about three o’clock naughty clouds began to interrupt our business. We came out of our recesses, congratulated each other, and had spme minutes’ rest. As the sun looks through between the clouds another system was noworganised. Instead of at regular intervals, now a photograph was taken whenever the sun was shining through a gap, and, I may as well say, our arrangements we f? s v com P lefce i our machinery working eo‘ well, that the sun could not send a ray through a narrow gap during a few seconds without” being immediately caught and pictured. Thus we succeeded, as I findbya thorough tion yesterday afternoon, an getting in aIIMQ [jictures. .The hrt on.of sixteen minutes before egress Tbo„ „ u y ’ cloud put itself obstinately in the wav not recede till exactly th rty-three seowSlft& the lasu contact, according to ■ ■ i time. y.„ us ..,U gether the assistants to Kivetbr*Jv> * *° - and to dip thce9^ti m eß our g^o^io^k^•T; 2sa * *° „* ■yWEiftti'tff • >l* vi