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Show MERCURY'S TRANSIT Satisfactory and Sacceasful Obser-VitiCAis Obser-VitiCAis of the Solar Tramp- Science and Star-Gazers Gratified. The lively little planet Mercury promptly kept its engagement yesterday, yester-day, nd faithfully fulfilled its promises. prom-ises. It appeared on time, and floated acroe the sun's lace, or rather between be-tween the Eun and our owa world. The event has been looked forward to I wuri a gi)ou ueai 01 interest by the Btar-gezera, and now that it has transpired we ire pleased to say they I will be much gratified with the result, valuable and desired astronomical information having been obtained. The transit was observed from various pDinta iu this country and in Europe, but the chief place of observation, to which the scientific world looked for the moat satisfactory results, was at Ogden, Utah. The French government govern-ment baa taken the leading interest in the matter, aud aa our readers are already awaro, sent out a scientific expedition ex-pedition to make the necessary observations obser-vations and calculations. The government govern-ment signal service station was placed at their disposal, and for some time the scientific gentlemen have been at the observatory, with their ins'ru-menta, ins'ru-menta, getting ready for yesterday's work. After all of the trouble and expenBe, it is gratifying to know the observations v. ere most successful, success-ful, much more so than was anticipated in the early morning. The day opened out very cloudy, the sky being overcast with clouds and snow and hail storms coming at ahort intervals until noon. Not a view of the aun was obtained until nearly 9 o'clock. The main objects of the observation were to ascertain the existence of an inter-mercurial planet, to test the theory of M. Angot in regard to his process of taking helio-photograpbB, helio-photograpbB, and to further the preliminary pre-liminary calculations in reference to the next transit of Venus which will occur in 18S2, The cost of the expedition expe-dition to the French government will be from $1S,000 to $20,000 without counting the price of instruments. The smalt apparatus alone cost $5,000. The superintendence ol the observations observa-tions was entrusted to M. AnditS, who has M. Angot and M. Halt assisting him. The work of observing the traoBit of Mercury and of taking photographs was divided aa follows: M. C. Andr6 had charge of one of the equatorial refractors and the American meridian instrument. M. P. Halt bad the other equatorial refractor and the French meridian instrument, and M. A. Angot both the French and the American photographic photo-graphic instruments; the French instrument in-strument being one which he has much improved. The photographing was aided by Messrs. Hodman and Laroph of Ogden, and waa very successful. suc-cessful. The rotractore are very fine instruments, having each an aoerture of six inches and being fitted with silver plates bo arranged aa to exclude the heat of the eun from the tube, while admitting the light. Our diagram showe the line of the passage of the planet Mercury acroes the disk of the aun. The transit was from east to west, the firet contact nneurrinir at 7.44 a.m. Of thiB DO photograph waa takeD, the sun not putting in an appearance; but at 1 every interval when he showed himself between the clouds for a few noconda a view was taker. About noon the weather cleared up and from then till the cloee the astronomers had a very busy time of it, being so bard at work that they had 00 time to speak to any but their assistants. The egreas ol Mercury took place at 3.17 p.m., ef which point of contact an excellent view waa obtained. Some idea of the work done by them may be bad by the number of views obtained, seventy-hnintr seventy-hnintr taken, thirty of them with the American instrument by the dry process, and forty eight by the jf wet process with the French instru- b ment. The last view waa taken at 3.H p.m. I Take thorn altogether, the obaerva- t tions have been successful, and com- pletcly demonstrated the truth of M. c Angot's theory for photographing I similar phenomena, and the aalrono- j mers may well feel proud of the rmill o( thfir labors. M. Andie w 10 well pieced with the result, that he promptly cabled the following to ( Pria: Good weather for egress. Our b-STVtiotis b-STVtiotis prove our theory true. Good photographic obeervatian. In 1110 viewa taken the disk of the Bun measures four inches across and Ibe planet Mercury one fiftieth ol an inch. This will give some idea of their rlaiive size. |