THE TRANSIT OF VENUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1234, 16 February 1883, Page 2

THE TRANSIT OF VENUS.

« (London Times, Bth December.) The accounts at ptesent received are most satisfactory, as form the obser r vations now known to have be!en made the Sun's distance should he determined within a comparatively small, amount. Tlie observations made at the Cape, where the time of entry on |he Sun's disc was accelerated by parallax-,'com-bined with those obtained in tlte Upted States and West Indies, v&eVe/the time of entry was delayed l»y parallax, will give a good moans of obtaining tho required result. The ac'eoleiated fftrcss wr.s well ohsorved at the same places a-: the delayed ingress and ha.viug

been successfully 1 observed in New Zea- . lan3, a combination of these observa- ! tions.will form another means of deter-; mining the Sun's distance. The success whici has attended the American t photographic parties gives yet another means; and as they have devoted special attention to this method of observations and obtained a considerable number of photograps, there is every probability of an accurate result from the photographic method. It will be noticed that the English or American observations alone are sufficiently successful <x> give a value of the Sun's distance ; so that from a combination of the observations of the two countries, supplemented by those of other nations, it may be confidently expected that in the course of two or three years the distance of the. Sun from the Earth will be satisfactorily determined from observations of this phenomenon.