TRANSIT OF VENUS.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2705, 8 December 1882, Page 3

TRANSIT OF VENUS.

The following items respecting the transit of Venus are additional to those given in our issue of yesterday and will be found of interest: — [special to press association.] Received December 7th, 10.30 p.m. LONDON, December 6th, 5.45 p.m. Very successful observations of the transit were obtained in America, Capetown, Durban, and the West of England. At Paris and Madrid the weather was cloudy, and prevented the contact being distinctly observed. The transit was plainly visible in Cork, but at the other stations in Ireland the sky was overcast.

I PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.] AUCKLAND, December 7.

Agreeable to arrangement the American transit of Venus party assembled at Obey at four o’clock, Mr Smith arriving a little later. Professor Pritchett (assistant astronomer) immediately began and satisfactorily completed his measurements and adjustments, and at five o’clock various members of the party book their stations. Messrs Pritchett, {Storey, and Theilkuhl, photographers, retiring within the photographic house. Mr John Gamble, son of the American Consul, who has been assisting ever since Mr Smith’s illness, managing the heliostat, Mr Dennison attending to the chronograph in the blockhouse, and Mr Edwin Smith superintending the whole operations within the enclosure. The only other persons allowed within the enclosure were Mr J. T. Stevenson, who made observations through an equatorial telescope, Messrs Gamble (American Consul), J. P. Barber and James Coates, but some sixty persons congregated outside and watched the proceedings with evident| interest. In the photographic house, Mr Storey (chief photographer) busied himself in placing plates in position, and removing them, while Professor Pritchett exposed them and noted the time by means of a wire attached to an automatic chronograph, Mr Theilkuhl’s duty consisting in “ developing ” plates after they had been removed. The sky was perfectly clear when the photographic operations were commenced, and seventyfour pictures were taken before they had to be suspended. This occurred at the period of the internal contact, and the clouds obscuring the sun were so thin that by removing the shades from their equatorial telescope Mr Smith and Professor Pritchett were also able to watch the remainder of the transit till the moment of the planet’s final egress. Had the sky continued clear fully 150 photos would have been taken, but, as it is, the seventyfour which have been obtained are regarded as a very satisfactory result. So far as the plates have been developed, they give promise of very successful pictures—in fact, Professor Pritchett declares he has never seen better ones. The members of the party are highly pleased with the work they have been able to do, and they consider observations to be more valuable than those of 1874. The two photographers return to America by next mail steamer, carrying with them photographs and records, duplicates of which follow by the ensuing steamer, so that in case of accident to one vessel the data may not be lost. Computations for determining the sun’s parallax will only be commenced at Washington when all returns have come to hand. Mr Smith and Professor Pritchett leave on the 2Gth for Sydney, and at the observatory there will fully determine the longitude of New Zealand before proceeding on to Singapore. Captain Hall, late of the Survey Department, made observations at Resolution Point; and Professor Lambert, F.R.A.S., assisted by Mr Stuart, junr., on the new Northern road. They got a number of excellent photographs. WELLINGTON, December 7.

A superb morning broke on this eventful date of the long-looked-for transit of Venus. Hardly a cloud was to be seen or a breath of wind felt when the sun first rose. There was, as there had been all night, a good deal of that atmospheric disturbance known as " Boiling,” which caused the solar disc at times alalmost to resemble a circular saw, and rendered all precision of definition impossible, but as the morning wore on this passed away, and there was at the critical moment perfect stillness and definition. The dark body of the planet could plainly be seen even with the naked eye, protected by a smoked glass, as the sun rose, and it remained uninterruptedly visible to the end. Just before egress some light fleecy clouds passed eastward, causing apprehension lest, at the supreme instant of internal contact, the observation should thus be marred. Fortunately, the fear proved groundless. The clouds passed by, and at the time of contact the clearness and stillness could hardly have been better as Venus slowly passed off the sun. By 7.52 a.m. all was over, and it only remained to compute and compare results. The success of the New Zealand observations was almost complete. Colonel Tupman (Burnham), Mr McKerrow and Mr Adams Mount Cook, Wellington), the Yen. Archdeacon Stock and Mr King (Thorndon, Wellington), Mr Shannon and Mr Littlejohn (Terraco, Wellington), Mr Marchant and Captain Hewitt (Wairarapa), Mr Humphries, (New Plymouth), and Professors Smith and Pritchett, of the American observing party (Auckland), all report thoroughly satisfactory observations of both internal and external egress contact. The American party, moreover, have been successful in taking no fewer than seventyfive splendid photos of the transit. Mr W. B. Gibbs, of Wellington, has taken several excellent photos of the phenomenon in its different stages. It would hardly be possible for more perfect accomplishment to have been achieved of the aspirations of so many years than that which has on this occasion rewarded the New Zealand observers. The only failure among the more important observations was that of Dr. Hector, at Clyde, whose view was vexatiously intercepted by a dense cloud almost at the very instant of contact. There are, however, amply sufficient complete observations for all the purposes aimed at. TIMAEU, December 7.

The sky was too cloudy this morning to enable Archdeacon Harper to observe the transit of Venus.

DUNEDIN, December 7.

Mr Arthur Beverley furnishes the following with regard to the transit of Venus:—“ At an early hour this morning the prospect looked rather gloomy for the Dunedin observers of the transit, but as the critical time approached the clouds cleared away and left the sun shiningthrough a faint haze in the upper atmosphere. This haze improved the definition wonderfully, for when it r 1 oared away a few minutes before external contact the outline of the sun, which was previously sharp and steady, began to flicker slightly. The haze also reduced the irradiation nearly to zero, so that there was no appearance of a black drop or any of those perplexing phenomena which occur at internal contact when the sky is clear altogether. The weather could hardly have been better if got up for the occasion. The disc of V onus, while on the sun, appeared very sharply defined, and as it approached the edge of the sun the luminous lino separating them became finer and finer until it vanished at the point of contact. This was not a prolonged affair, as we were led to expect. The breaking of the luminous thread was so sudden that there could hardly be a mistake of two seconds in recording it. In about ten seconds after contact the only other phenomenon worth mentioning began to appear. The part of Venus which projected beyond the sun’s disc showed a very fine pink outline, caused, no doubt, but the sunlight refracted through her atmosphere, which continued visible until the disc of Venus projected about a fifth of its diameter beyond the solar disc. It then gave way at the north side, but continued visible at the south side until Venus was half off, when it appeared like a minute pink hair standing perpendicular to the sun’s margin at the edge of the semicircular notch. The times of contact as observed approximately were —internal, 7h. 31min.; external, 7h. Slmin., New Zealand meantime, or about ten minutes later than the times given in the.“ Nautical Almanac.” How such a blunder could have been made by the conductors of that publication it is not easy to see."