Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 095.djvu/307

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
on the singular Figure of the Planet Saturn.
275

The most northern belt comes up to the place where the ring of Saturn passes behind the body, but the belt is bent in a contrary direction being concave to the north, on account of its crossing the body on the side turned towards us, and the north pole being in view.

There is a very dark, but narrow shadow of the body upon the following part of the ring, which as it were cuts off the ring from the body.

The shadow of the ring on the body, which I see south of the ring, grows a little broader on both sides near the margin of the disk.

The division between the two rings is dark, like the vacant space between the ansæ, but not black like the shadow I have described.

There are four satellites on the preceding side near the ring; the largest and another are north-preceding; the other two are nearly preceding.

April 19. I viewed the planet Saturn with a new 7-feet telescope, both mirrors of which are very perfect. I saw all the phenomena as described last night, except the satellites, which had changed their situation; four of them being on the following side. This telescope however is not equal to the 10-feet one.

The remarkable figure of Saturn admits of no doubt: when our particular attention is once drawn to an object, we see things at first sight that would otherwise have escaped our notice.

10-feet reflector, power 400. The night is beautifully clear, and the planet near the meridian. The figure of Saturn is somewhat like a square or rather parallelogram, with the four

N n 2