MAY. SOLAR PHENOMENA. The northern regions of the earth are arrayed with the beauty of spring. The noon exhibits a canopy of boundless azure, the night reveals the wintry constellations sinking in the west, with the advance of those stars to the mid-heaven, which declare that the time of the singing of birds is come, and that the summer is advancing. The flower and the star appear each in its season, and send forth, the one its ray, and the other its fragrance, with unfailing precision. The lovely train of Flora delights the senses with its perfume and beauty; the thrush and black bird fill the woods with melody, and Arcturus in the east, and Capella in the zenith, shed forth their brightest scintillations: the rose, the nightingale, and bright star in the hand of the Virgin, bloom, sing, and shine together; the violet from its shady bank, the lark from " its watch-tower in the sky," send forth their tribute of odour and harmony, as the stars in the soft Pleiades fade away in the glowing twilight of the vernal eve. As the fervid heat of summer increases, and light is more copiously diffused over the northern world, the stars shine with a subdued brilliancy; the melody of the grove ceases; the Aster tribe of flowers, with their diversified radiations, decorate the field and the garden, and with pure adoration expand their bright flowrets to receive the full effulgence of the summer sun. The sun enters Gemini at 54 min. after 2 of the morning of the 21st of this month. LUNAR PHENOMENA. Phases of the Moon. First Quarter, 7th day at 5 min. after 8 morning. 5 afternoon. 9 evening. 11 night. Conjunctions of the Moon with the Planets and Stars. The conjunction with Saturn will prove an occultation; the immersion will take place at the dark limb of the moon, and about an hour after it has passed the meridian. PHENOMENA PLANETARUM. Transit of Mercury. It is probable that the most interesting celestial phenomenon that the astronomer can behold, is a transit of a planet across the disc of the sun; it is interesting as well for its singularity as its rarity; it can occur only with the inferior planets, and with these in the present century, only thirteen can occur with Mercury, and two only with Venus in the same period. On the 5th of this month, in the morning, the planet Mercury will cross the disc of the sun, and appear on it as a circular black spot for nearly seven hours; this celestial phenomenon will be visible from its commencement to its termination to the whole of Europe, and a great part of Africa; the ingress will be visible to Asia, and the egress to America. There is no doubt but that every lover of the science of astronomy, within the limits of the visibility of the transit, will endeavour to witness the spectacle,—to see this bright and beautiful gem, that shines with such a rosy brilliancy as the morning or evening star, now melting away in the full effulgence of the rising day, and then heralding the bright hosts of stars to glitter on the midnight sky,—to see this lovely jewel of the ruddy dawn, or evening shades, enter on the sun's glowing orb, with not merely dimmed splendor, but shrouded in intensest blackness, pursuing its course over a field of glory, yet clad in gloom; such a phenomenon will not fail to interest, and the observer, as he marks the blackness of the planet, in contrast with the solar effulgence, may apply the celebrated line to the messenger of the gods: "Dark with excessive light his robes appear." The following are the particulars of this interesting phenomenon : External ingress, or beginning of the S. Apparent time. Mean solar time. External egress, or end of the Transit, 3 54 The following diagram will illustrate the points of ingress, nearest approach, and egress of the planet :į Transit of Mercury over the Sun, 5th May, 1832. In observing the transit, the same course may be pursued with Mercury that has been recommended for the planet Venus,-t at previous to the time of the beginning of the transit, the observer should have his telescope properly fixed, and prepared with dark glasses to defend the eye, which he should keep fixed upon that point of the sun's limb where the planet is expected to |