Astronomical Occurrences In JULY 1826. O'er the great sea that borders Palestine, The heavenly coursers mounted of the Sun, PENNIE'S Royal Minstrel. SOLAR PHENOMENA. THE Sun enters Leo at 35 m. after 11 in the morning of the 23d of this month; and he rises and sets, during the same period, as in the following TABLE Of the Sun's Rising and Setting for every fifth Day. July 1st, Sun rises 45 m. after 3. Sets 15 m. after 8 By adding the numbers as directed in the following table, the time which a well regulated clock ought to give at the respective moments will be obtained; and it will, consequently, be discovered whether it is too fast or too slow, when it may be regulated accordingly. TABLE Of the Equation of Time for every fifth Day. Moon's Passage over the Meridian. If the weather prove favourable, the following transits of the Moon will afford opportunities for observations this month. When the place is distant from the first meridian, the times will require a slight reduction, corresponding to the longitude. July 13th, at 46 m. after 6 in the evening Time of High Water at London for every fifth Day. From the following periods of full tide, the times for the intermediate days, or for other places, may be found as already directed. ૨ As this planet now approaches the earth with greater rapidity, she gradually increases in brilliancy; and the proportion of the light and dark parts of her disk is— July 1st, {Dark part..... Illuminated part = 10:358 = 1-642 Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites. Though there will be not less than twenty-five eclipses of the first and second of these satellites this month, only one of the first will be visible, the Emersion of which will take place on the 9th, at 29 m. 12. past 9 in the evening. Form of Saturn's Ring. The opening of this ring at the era of the last statement was about as great as it ever attains; but since then it has decreased a little, and the proportion of its two axes. now is, Conjunction of the Moon with the Planets and Stars. Georgium Sidus will be in opposition at 5 in the morning of the 15th of this month. The other phenomena are not remarkable. Few subjects present more beauty, or greater variety, to those who are permitted to gaze on the Ganges or the Nile, to tread the wilds of Siberia, or recline in the groves of Italy, or to bask in the sunshine of the tropical regions, than the departure of day, which is forcibly sketched in the following extract. SUNSET in different CLIMES. [From Howison's Foreign Scenes.] 'Sunrise, Sunset, and Moonlight, constitute some of the most interesting modifications of ocean-scenery. The first, however, seldom displays much beauty or variety; for at a distance from land the great luminary in general emerges upon an unclouded horizon, and therefore nothing but a glare of light attends his appearance on the brow of the morning. With Sunset it is quite the reverse: in almost every dissimilar climate and different sea, the celestial phenomena that accompany the departure of day vary in their character, and assume different aspects. I am far from thinking that Sunset, as seen at sea, can ever equal what it is on shore, where mountains, vallies, forests, rivers, and ruins, clad in the glorious investments of evening, and mutually heightening the individual effect of each other, dazzle the eyes and mind of the beholder, and make the scene excite emotions as numerous and diversified as the objects that compose it; but in the midst of the ocean, the exhibition has a more abstract kind of magnificence, and, from the absence of all terrestrial features and associations, more ideality. 'Perhaps the finest Sunsets of any take place in the West India seas during the rainy season. In the morning the horizon is encircled with a range of clouds, the masses of which gradually increase till noon they then become motionless and unchanging, and float indolently in the overpowering fervour of day; but when the Sun has declined considerably, new masses start up from the place at which he will set, as if to prepare for his reception. After he sinks behind them, he remains for a little time completely shrouded; but the obscuring volumes are at length divided by a chasm, through which a magnificent burst of splendour flashes forth with startling rapidity: every flake now rolls away from before him, and his orb, dilated into glorious magnitude, pouring floods of golden light, and sublimely curtained with clouds of the most dazzling tints, throws a parting smile upon the ocean, whose mirrored bosom placidly receives the radiant gift, and reflects back the whole celestial pageantry with a chaste and tempering mellowness. But as the moment of dipping approaches, the Sun's glare falls unequally upon the gigantic clouds, and lights them with gorgeous dyes on one side, while they remain black, portentous, and pregnant with thunder on the other, and seem to await, with lurid impatience, the time when their controlling luminary will disappear, and leave them to burst into tempest, and discharge their pent-up wrath upon the bosom of night; at last he sinks below the horizon, and darkness almost instantaneously involves both ocean and sky. 'Sunset, as seen in the Southern Atlantic, has a more sober magnificence than in the West Indian seas. The clouds are equally brilliant in colour, but are less fantastically arranged; the light is nearly as vivid, but has not the tropical glare and fierceness just described; and the reflection upon the sea is quite as beautiful, but not so dazzling and extensive. 'The most lovely and impressive Sunset I ever witnessed, took place at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, where the river is thirty miles wide. I was on board ship, and we lay in the middle of the majestic stream, the surface of which was perfectly calm, and apparently without current. Several vessels had anchored within a mile of our station; and the sound of voices and the rattling of cordage, which occasionally proceeded from them, were the only vibrations that agi |