Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/735

primitive races; it was this which, on the occasion of the earliest eclipse recorded in history—the eclipse of Thales—put a stop to the famous war of the Medes and the Persians, by sending the chill of mortal terror into the hearts of the warriors as they were on the point of engaging' in battle; this it was which, at the last eclipse, led a negro, suddenly frenzied and convinced that a deluge was about to be sent down by an angered Deity, to strangle his own wife and children; finally, it is this same feature of the solar eclipse which makes the deepest impression on the mind of the astronomer who has made all his preparations for observation, but is so full of emotion in view of the grandeur of the spectacle, that he can only with difficulty analyze with his wonted coolness, and during the few minutes of total darkness, the details of the phenomenon.

The American astronomer Professor Watson, the discoverer of a great number of small planets, has declared that his one thought during the recent eclipse was to look for the intra-Mercurial planet. In announcing this observation to the Academy of Sciences, the Director of the Paris Observatory, M. Mouchez, expressed himself thus:

The accomplished astronomer of Ann Arbor has seen a heavenly body of the fourth magnitude, situated two degrees distant from the sun, and whose position was: right ascension, 8^h. 26^m.; declination north, 18° 0'.

The star nearest to this position is Theta Cancri (8^h. 24^m. and 18° 30'), and it is of the fifth magnitude. This difference of magnitude and of position justifies us in supposing that in all probability it was the planet Vulcan which was again seen by Mr. Watson. The Academy can not but receive with great pleasure this observation, which is only a new tribute to the scientific glory of Leverrier. M. Gaillot has calculated an orbit and an ephemeris. The time of revolution is only twenty-four days. The planet is at its greatest distance from the sun today (August 5th); to-morrow it will be at thirty-eight minutes of time. This distance is great enough to allow of our observing it, if not at Paris, at least at other more favored localities.

Watson's own account of the observation is as follows:

At the recent total eclipse of the sun I was occupied exclusively in a search for any intra-Mercurial planet which might be visible. For this purpose I employed an excellent four-inch refractor, by Alvan Clark & Sons, mounted equatorially with a magnifying power of forty-five. There were no circles originally attached to the instrument, and accordingly I placed on it circles of hard wood, the declination circle being five inches and the hour circle four and three quarter inches in diameter. On these I pasted circles of cardboard, and pointers were provided so that I could mark with a sharp pencil the position corresponding to any particular pointing of the instrument. This method does not compare in accuracy with graduated circles and veniers, but it has the advantage, and a very important one in the present case, of avoiding the uncertainty which might be attributed to erroneous readings of the circles. To read the divided circles would require considerable time, while the pointings can be marked on the paper disks in a few moments. And, besides, while a doubt might be raised as to the correctness of the recorded circle readings, no such doubt can exist in reference to the positions marked on these paper circles. The chronometer